A new part of family
by JinxAnn
Summary: Crossover: HP and Twilight. Hermione's parents died and she needs to find a way back into a more or less normal life. The Cullens family desperately needs a little change, to patch up some family issues. Enjoy or ignore :)
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** So a few words ahead. First of all I am not native English speaking, and while I used to depend on my English most of my every-day-life for a few years I didn't have the need to during the past two years and let it become rusty. So I already will excuse for all the mistakes I will make, without any doubt. Just msg me, tell me and I will fix it. Then secondly usually I only write stories in german and also only for my private D&D group, that is my first experience outside of this box. Why do I decide for English anyway? I know how frustrating it is when I find a fanfic I want to read but it turns out to be in a language I don't understand. Since I want to save others from this fate, I think English is a better choice. It may hurts the quality of my writing, but I think the story gets carried over to more interested people. Last thing I have to say. I hate cross-overs. I really do. I never read them because it gets too crazy for my taste, nonetheless…..I am going to write a crossover here. This idea just got stuck for so long in my head that I have to blur it out to the world. So whoever enjoys reading this, please let me know. Who doesn't like the idea…..well you know where the "back"-Button is, right?

 **A few informations that should help diving into the story:** Sets place in 2nd year so Hermione is 12 years old. It's a Twilight (and I am talking about the books, I have nothing good to say about the movies) and Harry Potter crossover as you might noticed. I am aware that the timelines of both stories don't fit together so let's say it's a AU and just work a little with me guys!

 **Chapter 1: Time for a change!**

It has been several months, since Hermiones Parents died in a Car Crash. They weren't driving. They just stood at the sidewalk of the road, when a man lost control of his car, hit another vehicle and then crashed into the people standing there, they had no time or room to escape. The driver wasn't drunk or playing with his mobile phone. There was no reason to blame him other than being human and losing control. It really was nothing more than an accident. Oh of course she was angry at the man who took away her loving home and family but there was nothing to steer revenge feelings or turn her personality 180° around. No. All that happened was her mourning her loss, keeping to herself for a good while, sorting her life newly and learning to keep going with the newly formed hole in her heart.

And this was the annoying part, that it was so very normal how she dealt with the situation. It seemed like all of her friend and/or acquaintances expected her to deliver a show of drama, a emotional fallout or a completely new Hermione. She thought after a few months it would quiet down, they would stop to tell her again and again how sorry they are for her loss and expect her to burst emotionally. But it kept going. This way she had no chance to get a normal daily routine again in her life.

One of the positive side effects of being a part of the wizarding world, was that paperwork wasn't as much of a big deal. Hogwarts took care of the resulting problems of her being an orphan now. But Prof. McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore made quite clear that this can't be a permanent solution. Instead of a human foster family or an orphanage, she stayed at Hogwarts ever since. Whoever of the staff was available, served as her guardian at any times and everyone turned out to be patient and understanding when dealing with her outside of class. She even learned a new side of Prof. Snape.

But this was another Problem that kept her from being able to feel "normal" again. They just didn't treat her normal anymore. While she loved all the help and their attempts to give her a new feeling of family, this wasn't what she needed or wanted right now.

So it was time to change her situation and move on, she was determined. A long weekend was ahead and most students visit their families. Ron and Harry stayed at School, but since things happened it was hard for Hermione to stay as close to them as she used to be. They tried, they really did, but she just couldn't stand the way they treated her like a cracked egg. So when they boys wanted to play a game of Chess she excused herself to the library for some private research. A plan formed in her head and she wanted to reassure it's possibility before she spoke to the headmaster about it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Time for a change?**

Things were tricky in the Cullen family. Everyone was happy that Edward had this rapid change of character ever since he met Bella. It gave the family a new kind of peace, but it also seemed to create new thinking paths for a few family members and Carlisle wasn't sure if he considered himself affected by it or not. Obviously Rosalie and Esme were victims of those new feelings. Carlisle knew that Esme loved each of their Children as if they were her own. She let no doubts to anyone outside of the family that those young adults are her babies, no matter how old they seem or really are. But he also felt that over all those decades it didn't quite replace the wish of truly raising a child. The children, while they behaved as such, were all old enough to be independent and live on their own if they decide so. And deep down they knew it, even though they all preferred the family life they had.

Now with young Bella around, Esme had the chance to cook for her, make sure she did her homework, which was just pointless when your kids already graduated school several times, and care for someone. But even Bella had her own family, Charlie, and she was nearly 18. Old enough to care for herself as well. It made his wife happy and sad at the same time to see her grow into this young, wonderful woman, that made her son so happy. But Carlisle had no idea what to do, to help his beloved Esme.

Rosalie was an extreme different kind of issue. While Esme hang in-between Happy and sad, Rosalie simply was devastated by the new course of actions. Not only did she disapprove of the relationship her brother chose for many reasons, it also ripped wounds open, that she long had buried. Esme's way to take care of the human girl made her wish to do that for someone as well. It reminded her that she never will be able to see a child of her own grow up and have the chance to care for. She hated all of it and she made sure everyone took note of her disagreement. It hurt Carlisle as a father and as the one who was partly to blame for this fate, to see his little girl in so much pain. But he couldn't take away one childs happiness for another. They had to find a way to deal with it.

Unfortunately now wasn't the time for him, to fix all those issues. Because besides all the problems laying ahead, he had something that excited him throughoutly. He always somehow knew that if he was real, if vampires were real and if shapeshifter were real, then witches and goblins and all the fancy things could be real as well, but seeing it, was a whole new story. Weeks ago he received a letter from a hospital in London. St. Mungo's. At first he didn't know what to make out of it, he never heard about it and that usually means it has no or a bad reputation. But oh boy was he wrong. The letter explained the nature of the institution, and how they were interested in his story and career as only known vampiric doctor. How they knew about him was beyond him and he was hesitating to accept their invitation for a tour, but he didn't regret it the slightest. He went there for a short visit a few weeks ago and was simply stunned by the huge impact this discovery had on his world view. He thought the secret society of vampires among humans was nearly impossible to believe but the wizarding world put a whole new level to it. He learned about this whole secret society system they maintain since decades among the human world, unseen and unnoticed. It was amazing. How much his people could learn from it, if they weren't so headstrong about their position in the world. He also learned that a lot of his people knew about the wizards all along, and some even live in this other world as he started to call it secretly. Of course those magicians knew all about their world, how wouldn't they? As organized as they were. The older Lady that showed him around the hospital and introduced him to the staff, explained a lot about how the world is kept secret from humans. They were sincerely interested in his story and met him with respect and awe, something he did not expect to be fair. They also explained that they were interest in his work, to help them with research work related to vampire-venom. He found the topic quite intriguing and agreed on a longer visit in the future to work with them. As soon as he got back home he had to tell his family and he didn't stop reading about the wizarding world. He wanted to know everything. Now his suitcase was packed, thanks to Alice, his ticket to London was safely in his Jacket-pocket and he was ready to leave for 3 weeks. He only hoped that his family would be ready for his absence as well. It bothered him to leave them in this state, but he had to trust that they could handle this problem until he would return.

"Do you have everything you need, Darlin?"  
Esme asked amused as he stood at the door, that led to the garage. Emmett carried his things to the Car and would drop him off at the Airport. Carlisle smiled lovingly and put an arm around his wife's waist.

"Do YOU have everything you need, while I'm gone?"  
he asked with a hint of true worry in his voice. Playfully she slapped his chest.

"Of course, we will be fine. Please don't worry all to much. We want you to enjoy your trip, so you can tell us all the exciting stories when you are back and maybe finally show us this fairy wonderland you are speaking of all the time."  
She kissed him tenderly to say her goodbye.

"And don't forget to bring me some input on their fashion ways, as you promised!" Alice reminded him in a strict tone as she walked over to wish him her goodbye too.

He had a few words with each family member before he finally left and focused on his new Project.

AN: So the first two chapters were rather an intro than part of the actual story, but I hope you enjoyed them anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Time to put the plan into action**

„Ilvermorny?" McGonagall said breathless and shocked. Her jaw hung open as she nearly jumped out of the comfy armchair and stared at the young girl sitting next to her. Across the Desk, that was full of little things and papers, Dumbledore eyed the two ladies in front of him, lost in sorting his own opinion. "But why would you want to leave us, Hermione?". The Head of Gryffindor couldn't quite catch on those change of things.

Hermione sat grumpy, sunken in the too big chair. Her arms crossed. She knew it would have been the right way to approach this by talking about it with her head of house first. But she also knew that McGonagall wouldn't let her go. She just loves her students so much and she wouldn't understand. So Hermione went to Dumbledore with her plan, after she gathered all the needed information. Knowing that he is a wizard that is open to ideas, that seem strange to the most and if she would get to explain her reasoning, she was sure he would agree upon her plan. Unfortunately his first action was to call for Minerva McGonagall, when Hermione explained why she wished to speak with him.

"Girl, are you aware what you are saying?" The Professor laid a hand on the girls shoulder. "I mean we are your family, this is your home…..and oh…..your friends young Harry and Mr. Weasley….." Her face wore a sad expression now.

"Now now Minerva, give the girl a second to answer all your questions." Dumbledore looked over his glasses still sorting things out in his own head. He tried to understand where the girl was coming from. "Hermione, would you please?" he asked kindly and pushed a little bowl with lemon drops from his side of the desk over into her reach. It tricked a little smile out of the girl, but she didn't take any of the candy.

Unfolding her arms, and leaning a bit forward in her chair, she took a breath to start her well-prepared explanation. "It's been months since my…..since things happened." Oh no she already stumbled at the first few words. Stay calm Hermione. "But still the other students can't forget or drop the topic. Whenever there is chance they remind me, while I try to find a normal day rhythm." She let out an annoyed sigh, thinking about several occasions that replayed this example. "It's just impossible to find my way back into feeling normal again." She turned her Head from the Headmaster to her Head of House. "And Harry and Ron are the worst, when it comes to this. They mean well but they just can't treat me like their friend from first year anymore." She looked at her shoes that hang in the air, thanks to the too big furniture she was sitting on, or rather laying on. "And even you" she looked at her Professor again and realized how forceful she sounded. Ashamed she looked back to her shoes and started the sentence with a smaller voice. "I mean…the staff. You can't just treat me normal anymore. It's not possible with this new Situation." With new confidence she sat up straight again and looked into Dumbledore's eyes. "it's not good for me anymore. It was at the beginning and I am thankful and I needed this support, but now it makes things harder for me than they should be." She let out her breath as if she held it in before "So much for the schooling part". Now she gathered up her thoughts. That was the first part of her prepared argumentation. Time to move on to the second. "Now my living situation is the other part. You told me that living at Hogwarts can't be a permanent Solution. And its much easier for me to find a suited foster family over there. I know that Ilvermorny is a lot more democratic when it comes to muggleborns." Now the look in her eyes became fierce "You told me yourself, that given the rumors around Hogwarts at the moment, it could be difficult for me to find a home anytime soon." Now it was time for the last blow and her final argument. "I did a lot of reading concerning Ilvermorny and you two, knowing me well, have to agree that it would be the best place I could hope for, for a new start. Its organization is not unlike Hogwarts, so it wont be too unfamiliar. The contents of classes are very much alike, so I wouldn't fall behind much. In the worst case scenario I have to repeat one year, but I think I can catch up there. America would be a much better place to sort out my family-situation and you, surely being in contact with Ilvermorny's Headmaster, could keep track of my wellbeing." She laid back in her big chair, let her breathing slow down and waited nervously for a response. That was all she had, if they wouldn't take this explanation as enough, then she was doomed to live her life as 'The girl, who's parents died'

Silence filled the room only for seconds, while both adults tried to come to terms with the heard, but for Hermione it felt like hours stretching out. If Dumbledore spoke first, so she thought, the game would be hers. If Professor McGonagall was the one to react first, this would become tricky. She wouldn't want her to go.

She felt the urge to bite her nails, she never bit her nails. This was nerve killing.

The two teachers looked at each other until finally Dumbledore leaned back in his chair as well. "Well, I have to admit you thought this trough quite detailed, young lady." He fold his Hands in front of his chest, elbows resting on the armrests. "Not like we had to expect any less from you. Just as prepared as always." Professor McGonagall's face turned more and more into a confused mask as she got hit by the Headmasters words. He continued "but are you really aware of the consequences, when you decide to leave your friends here and start over in such an unfamiliar place?"

Before Hermione could answer, Professor McGonagall jumped to her feet. "Albus Dumbledore! You can't possibly be seriously considering this?!" she pointed a finger at him, furiously. "You cant let her go. She is only 12 years old! You can't let her make such a life changing decision."

The girl turned angry. What did this woman think - to question her ability of decision-making? Hermione took wiser choices than most adults she knew. She took a breath ready to defend herself, but the Headmaster was faster to speak.

"Minerva, please, this is young Miss Granger we are talking about. She is not known among the staff for jumping on baseless ideas, but for great preparation, research and a mind that seems much more mature." Pleased to see that he succeeded in calming the student, that sat across, as well as making his long term colleague overthink the matter.

Resigned Minerva let her Shoulders fall down. She put a hand on her cheek and wore a tired mimic on her face. Hermione felt a little regret and pain in her chest. She never saw her Head of House so…..so exhausted. But despite feeling guilty for being the reason to cause this, she knew that it was her only chance to get a grip on her own life again. Now it was her turn to put a hand on her Professors shoulder. "I am sorry to do this to you Professor, but I feel that I have to do it." She tried to force an encouraging smile on her lips "please, say yes" Now she sounded like a little child that wants to visit the circus, but the reason behind her pleading was so far away from childish dreams as it could be.

With a helpless sigh, the older woman enclosed the girl in a deep hug and tried to hold back a sniffle. "Oh dear, if you really thought that trough and are so headstrong about the matter, how could I be the one to keep you from happiness."

Hermione felt hot tears pool in her eyes. She never witnessed such an exposure of emotions from her teacher. She really must care for her students….for her. But all the nervousness, all the worry fell off of Hermione now. "Thank you!" she whispered. The two of them separated again, both wiping their own tears away, as Dumbledore took the word again

"So if we agree on this, let's get all the necessary planning started, shall we?" he said in a grandfather-like tone and called one of Hogwarts houseelfes for some tea. This would be a long evening for the trio.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Time to get used to magic**

It was late evening when Carlisle arrived at the place in London where he was supposed to meet his contact.

Her name was Emma Bright and she worked at St. Mungo's. Carlisle already had a brief talk with her during his last visit and knew that she was a nurse that usually took care of nervous children and little brats that would throw fits in the waiting room. A task he only could respect, for he knew the struggle himself. She was young, maybe at the end of her 20s or early 30s and had natural red hair and a friendly freckled face.

He scanned the crowed of people with his eyes for the red hair to catch his attention. After only a few moments he found her fighting through a moving mass of humans, to get to the entrance area, where he waited. Quickly he danced through open spaces in the crowd, not even his bags knocking anyone off, to reach her and put her struggle to an end. "Good evening Miss Bright." He said in his melodic, deep voice.

Emma jumped at the sudden approach, she didn't see him right next to her, but then remembered _what_ he was. A cold shiver ran down her neck, as she tried to shake off the creepy feeling that took over her for a second. She reminded herself, that this was a nice person and she knew him…..at least a little. "Hello Doctor Cullen. Please we already established, that you call me Emma." She greeted and scanned his many bags for a smaller one, she could carry for him. Do women do that? Is that good manners? She wasn't sure. Such situations made her feel awkward, always. She picked one of the smaller bags, that he only pressed against his body with one elbow and pulled it from him. "Here let me help you. You sure have a lot of things with you." She smiled, and tried to come off rather friendly than nervous.

Carlisle laughed. "I have a feeling this project, we are going to work on, will take longer than three weeks and wanted to be prepared, just in case." He let the young woman take his bag, to make her feel more comfortable if anything. He didn't really need the help, but he made the experience, that humans often felt uneasy when they didn't have a task on hand. Something he could relate to as well.

The woman turned on her heel, deciding that this welcome talk was over and walked in the direction she came from. Carlisle followed her amused. She was really suited to work with kids, as most ppl were, that acted so awkward around grown-ups. "Where are we going now?" he asked, more excited than was normal for him.

Emma looked at him over one shoulder, puzzled. "I thought Doctor Lucas talked with you about the details." She turned a bit angry, probably because of the lack of communication between her colleagues. Now she felt rude for not telling their guest where they went, like it was her fault he didn't know. "We got a room for you in one of our most favored taverns." She grimaced a little, as she remembered that 'tavern' was somewhat of an outdated term for someone like him, living in this modern muggle world. "I hope you like it old-fashioned" . As soon as she realized what she had said and to whom she blushed. "I mean…..ugh…..oh god….I am sorry."

Again Carlisle laughed. "It's alright I know what you mean." He gave her one of those calming smiles he used quite often while he was around nervous humans "Yes I do have a liking for the old-fashioned" he said with a wink.

The woman slowed her pace so she would walk next to him instead of leading the way. "I am really sorry. I guess we all have to get used to interacting with a vampire." No need in avoiding the word, she thought, brave. "Anyway it's a good bit away from London." She tried to not let him sense the actual understatement of her words, until she realized that it was pointless, since she had to tell him anyway.

A little disappointed he asked "How far away?". He liked London, and he always enjoyed coming back to it, especially now, that he knew of even more secrets about it.

By now they stood at a lonely Sidewalk. Carlisle was amazed how they could go from a crowded place to such an abandoned street. Emma put the bag, she held, down and motioned him to do the same. "Well" she started a bit nervous "Scotland to be exact." She saw the confused and somewhat disbelieving expression on the vampires face. She had to laugh out loud. Neve would she have guessed, that it was possible to see such a deadly creature this startled.

Her laugher shook the man alive again. "Scotland? But that is more than an 8 hour drive. How do you expect me to do that?" He knew he was missing information here and it annoyed him, but he was too interested in everything around him to let his annoyance take control. "What am I missing here, Miss Bright?" he asked defeated.

As soon as Emma caught her breath again she forgot her awkwardness around people and started to explain the procedure to the poor man. "We have faster ways of travel no worries. I will show you as soon as we get there. It's a good place to stay at. We thought you would rather enjoy staying in a small magical community rather than the muggle crowded London." Now she held this friendly tone, that she used when talking to frightened children.

Carlisle pulled his eyebrows up questioning "Muggles?".

"Oh I keep forgetting, how much I need to explain!" She exclaimed.

Carlisle felt a little stupid and uneducated for the first time in centauries.

"That's what we call non-magic humans." She explained patiently. They both heard a distant noise of squeaking wheels. "I hope you like fast travels. This is another thing, we thought, you would like to see. We are going to travel with one of the wizarding worlds most uncomfortable ways of transportation" she joked, as a blue bus with two decks came to an abrupt stand in front of them. Carlisle barely saw it coming even with his vampire abilities. "The Knight Bus."

Amazed he followed his Contact into the Bus, as she paid for two tickets and told the driver their destination. In fascination, he walked slowly into the vehicle. It seemed bigger on the inside. Instead of seats there were Beds. And there were things hovering in the air all around him. Tea cups, Newspapers even a pair of shoes. Several persons were chatting silently or being sound asleep. A voice pulled him out of his wonder "Find a place before we sta-" Emma was interrupted mid-sentence when the Bus suddenly got into motion and she failed to keep standing on her feet. Carlisle would have fallen to the same fate, if it weren't for his faster reaction. He caught himself at a near pole and grabbed his companions elbow to keep her from falling face flat on the ground. But his bags rolled all over the place. He flinched a little, as he thought of all the things that could be broken inside his bags now.

Once the Knight Bus was up to full speed, the world around them was stable again. Emma got her balance back "I am sorry! I never get used to this." With a flick of her wand, that Carlisle saw for the first time now, she let his bags levitate to a storage-net above their heads. Then motioned him to follow her to a little coffee-table in the back of the 'room', that magically stayed in place the whole time. They sat down, while the man still looked around in wonder. If only his family could see those wonders.

Emma pulled him once more out of his thoughts. "So as I said before, we assumed you would like to stay in a smaller magical community. The place you will be staying at is called 'The Three Broomsticks', and is located in Hogsmeade. A little wizarding town with a lot of history to it. Since we assume you want a few days off to explore our world this would be a nice place to start. Right next to the town is the most famous and greatest school of witchcraft and wizardry!" She exclaimed proud, puffing her chest out a little as if it were her own institution. "Hogwarts. We already spoke with the headmaster and he gave his promise to let you have a look at it, if you want." She smiled brightly. "You should take the offer it's the most magical place, of magical places"

Maybe Carlisle was foreign to the wizarding world, but he knew how pride looked and he knew how his kids were behaving when they felt as if they did something great, and he saw both behaviors in front of him right now. So it didn't take a detective to come to one conclusion here. "I assume, you went to this school as well?" He didn't need to ask, he just let it sound like a question out of politeness.

She nodded eagerly. "Most of St. Mungo's staff went there. As well as nearly all Children with magical talent in Great Britain and Ireland and sometimes even from further away. It has an outstanding reputation." She explained and Carlisle had a feeling that it didn't matter who she explained it to, she just was excited to talk about it. It was somewhat catchy, he nearly took onto her excitement for the topic.

He didn't think of it yet, but of course to this whole secret society had to be a schooling system as well. That really was interesting. He wondered how they made the children understand that they had to keep things secret in front of hum…..muggles. he corrected himself, trying to pic up the local manners.

The two of them chatted away a while. Emma explained to him the differences in the origins of their people. What it meant to be Pure-Blood, muggle-born or half-blood. Something Carlisle could understand but not really support. She also gave him a short explanation of some of the greater families, that still had a lot of influence and it reminded him a little bit of medieval times, which wasn't all that unwelcome. He did his homework and already was reading about important families and the political system. He wondered how he couldn't stumble across Hogwarts in all his research so far.

After what seemed like only a few Minutes, while it was nearly 3 hours, they reached their destination. It was well past 11pm now and Carlisle noticed that his Tour-Guide was exhausted and tired. So instead of shooting more of his questions at her, he let her help putting his things in his room. She decided to get a room herself instead of going home yet, since there were more things to organize in the morning, when she had more energy.

He wished her a good night, being aware of how unaware she was of the fact, that he didn't need to sleep. He didn't want to make her feel bad for it, so he pretended to go to sleep as well. After a while of exploring his own room and taking in the ancient furniture, he decided to explore the tavern until his adventure could continue.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:** _If you want to get into the mood: I was listening to this "Youtube: harry Potter (Calm Ambient mix by Syneptic) | Episode III"_ _while writing this chapter. Maybe it's nice to have it as background noise._

 **Chapter 5: Time to tell my friends**

Hermione was in an exceptional good mood. No one saw her this happy for a long time. She had a long talk with the Headmaster and her head of house the evening before and they worked out everything just great. Hermione, or rather the teachers and St. Mungo's department for family issues, would spend the rest of this school semester to find her a foster family in America. Once this issue was settled she was supposed to take the rest of the time off and get used to her new home and family. If everything fits, and she was determined to make it work, she would start attending Ilvermorny after Christmas. She was excited. Ilvermornie's Headmaster already gave his okay, and was happy to take over such a great student, as he put it.

At first Hermione wasn't too excited about the part of the plan, where she gets used to her new family. She really didn't care so much about what kind of family she would get into. Ilvermorny was a boarding school just like Hogwarts and she would barely ever see them. It was more a necessity than something she really wanted but since it was her way out of this misery and into a new life, she was ready to pay this price.

What followed now was the last bad part of her plan. She had to tell Ron and Harry and just hoped they wouldn't hate her forever. But even with this task ahead, her good mood couldn't get cut off. It was such a feeling of hope, that she missed for too long, that now filled her day. It felt as if sun was shining for the first time after weeks of rainy weather. She heard birds singing as she walked to the Gryffindor common room and wondered where all the birds had been during the past few months, she didn't hear them all this time.

She walked through the castle, now with a different view on thing. Every corner she passed, reminded her of memories of her glorious first year. She knew she should feel sad, but she didn't. All she felt was hope to experience more of those good moments again, somewhere else. She wanted more of those happy memories and she wouldn't make them here, but she would savor those she had. She wanted to leave Hogwarts with more good than bad emotions attached to it, so she had to leave soon. It was only early October yet, but the sooner she found a new home, the sooner she would be gone.

As she entered the common room, being more aware of the smell of dust, old furniture and burned wood, than she ever had been, she smiled contently. A look around the room told her that Harry and Ron must be in their room. She only ran up the stairs halfway and then called for them "Harry! Ron! Come down here, I have a surprise." It was Saturday now and due to the long weekend, Hogwarts lacked most of its students. The boys peaked their heads out of their room, and smiled a little surprised when they saw an unusual happy Hermione waiting for them.

"Grab some warm coats and get down here, we are going out." She exclaimed happily. Ron shot a worried look to Harry. "Don't you think she's up to something, that's against the rules, too?" he whispered to his friend. But Harry already was turning to his trunk, looking for cloths and getting ready to do as he was told. He was truly happy to see their friend smile again. After an annoyed sigh Ron followed Harry's example and only a few Minutes later they met Hermione at the Common Room entrance. She wore a thick purple coat and a grey scarf with a matching grey hat. She laughed into her hand, as she saw Ron's self-made Sweater with a giant 'R' on it's chest. "Are you two ready for Hogsmeade?" she asked, knowing that she drops the bomb here.

Both boys looked at her shocked "But we aren't allowed to go there until next year." Harry said disappointed, already turning around to take off his warm clothes and bring them back upstairs.

"Yeah and I cant get into trouble again. Mom would have my head" Ron complained, also turning around.

The young witch grabbed them both to stop them from fleeing. "But what if we have an exceptional OK from Prof. McGonagall?" She asked with a smirk. Both her friends looked at her open-mouthed.

"But how?" They asked like one person.

"I will explain to you when we got there. Just enjoy that your dear friend Hermione, got you a ticket to freedom." She opened the portrait-door and walked out, two confused boys stumbling after her.

Hermione discussed the problem of telling Ron and Harry, with her teachers, and all three of them agreed that it would be best if she told them herself. But to make things easier, McGonagall offered her the option of a nice day in Hogsmeade. They could shop through the stores and after a nice day have the dreading talk, while sipping butterbeer in the three Broomsticks. The only condition was that they behave, don't start trouble and come back until 5pm. Manageable, Hermione thought, even with Ron.

So they enjoyed their day out of school. They got bags full of candy, Hermione had a hard time pulling the two of them away from this fancy Broom, that hovered behind one of the shop windows, Ron got some treats for his pet rat and harry got a little bell for his window, that Hedwig could use to play with. It was great day. Once they all had hurting bellies from laughing at Ron, who took an opening door with his face, as he was distracted, they all felt somewhat cold and decided it was time for lunch and butterbeer.

Hermione felt a knot forming in her belly. Now was the time she would have to tell them and she really didn't want this nice day to end. For the first time ever since, she felt like their friend again and second thoughts crept up her mind. Maybe this all was a mistake and everything could become normal again, after all. But she quickly shook her head. She couldn't back out now, she fought too hard for this. With a little regret clawing at her, she followed the two of them into the tavern.

Once inside, they got a nice table at the fireplace and took off their cold clothes. There weren't much people in here today, Hermione noticed. Only the three of them, two older wizards at the bar, one old lady at a window, sipping her hot drink and reading, and two people sitting at a table in another corner. As the waitress approached them, they all placed their order.

Hermione wanted to wait until after they had something to eat, before she would start the talk, but Harry destroyed that plan. "So why did we get this special privilege, Hermione?" he asked curiously. Sometimes he was so much smarter than one would guess, Hermione thought with a mixture of pain and pride for her friend. He always knew when something was off, as if this was his special talent, she thought. "Well I have something I need to tell you two and Prof. McGonagall and the Headmaster agreed that it would be easier, when we had the chance to spend a fun day together." She explained matter-of-factly. She tried to just stay professional and don't get overly emotional. "Oh it was a fun day!" Ron agreed happily, clearly not picking up the change of mood. Unlike Harry. He instantly knew that, what would follow, would not be good news. "What is it Hermione?" He asked, skeptical this time.

Hermione remained silent, as the waitress walked over and placed their cups and some snacks on the table. Nervously she placed both of her cold hands around the warm drink, turning it back and forth and watching the liquid inside move as she chose her words carefully. "You two know that it wasn't easy being around me lately…..and….and that I wasn't all that happy." She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "And not only because of what happened with my…..my parents." She swallowed hard trying not to think about it "….but also because of how everyone treated me differently lately."

Harry listened patiently, giving his friend all time, that she needed. Ron just now picked up the direction of this talk and stopped chewing on one of the little sandwiches.

"You should know, that I am …..well I am not fine, but I am okay with ….how….uhm…how things are now, if you understand what I mean." She wanted to look into Harries eyes, to reassure if he knew what she was talking about, but couldn't find the confidence to do so, so she kept staring at her drink and continued "and all I really want now is to have a normal daily life again." She mumbled.

Okay now this was painful. Hermione hated herself for dragging it out so long. She just had to spit it out now. She gathered all her strength, took a deep breath and forced herself to look up and into her friends faces. And then she started to just tell the truth without any mumbles, stutters or pauses. Determined she lifted her chin…..

"Thing just don't go they way they should by now. And because it's not good for me, the teachers and I agreed, that it is best for me to leave Hogwarts and start over in Ilvermorny, in America, where it is easier to find a new home for me and where no one knows about me." She spoke so fast, that her words nearly melted into one long noise.

A few moments of silence followed.

"You want what?!" Ron jumped up, his chair falling backwards but he didn't care. "Are you kidding me? You just gonna run away and leave us? I thought we were friend Mione!" He wasn't angry, he was furious.

"Ron please let me…" Hermione tried to explain, but Ron cut her off

"You didn't even ask us for help! You just decided we aren't what you need anymore and run off to a better place!" he slammed his hands on the table. People started to stare at the trio. "I…..How could you…What do you…..ARGH" He couldn't find words, that could express his anger, he turned to leave. He wanted to go back to Hogwarts, back into his room and hide in his bed. He couldn't believe that Hermione would do that to them. But something took a hold on his shoulder.

Harry grabbed his friend. He didn't want to let him leave like this. He didn't want to separate fighting or let this beautiful day end in such a bad way. He already had only a few of those good days and he knew how Hermione must feel, so he wanted everything to be okay again. But Ron struggled, trying to get free. "Let me go harry!" he yelled and shook his arm furiously.

Suddenly, his friend let him go and without a look back Ron ran out of the room. He heard Hermione yelling Harry's name, but didn't bother to see why.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Time for a doctor**

It was already close to 11 o'clock and Carlisle and Emma still sat on their Table in the three broomsticks where Emma had her breakfast hours ago. Caught in rather interesting talks, as Carlisle thought. They were discussing the upcoming project they would work on, well he would work on. Emma wasn't really part of the researching team, just someone they could afford to send away for one or two days, to help him settle in here and show him around. It hurt him a bit to see that her talent went so unnoticed by her coworkers, but he would not meddle with that.

They also talked about things, he should check out during his days off. The Plan was, to give him 3 days off to roam the town and visit the school, before the work starts.

Emma explained to him what a portkey was, and how he could travel to the Hospital with it. They discussed just letting him use the floo, at the hospital, but then decided it maybe was too tricky for a newbie, so they prepared a personal portkey for him. At first he was skeptical, how an old, rusty spoon was supposed to bring him to work and back, but the explanation as to how it worked changed his disbelieve to pure interest.

Up to this point, the tavern was a really quiet and cozy place. There only were 3 other guests in the big room, all minding their own business. It felt nearly like a perfect place to work in silence. If he were a student he would have loved this place. It was then that a trio of kids entered the establishment. They were rather noisy but Carlisle couldn't be angry at them, because they were laughing and stumbling into the door exhausted and obviously fighting off the cold from outside. He smiled at their carefree display and decided to ignore them, as they sat down rather far away. Emma didn't react at all, she was focused on a map, marking places that were worth visiting, for him.

Here and there Emma would ask about his family, between business talks and he happily told her whatever she was curious about. He enjoyed talking about them and Emma obviously liked hearing about a happy family life. Bringing Carlisle to the assumption, that she was somewhat lonely. Their talk carried on for a while, Emma having one Cup of hot Chocolate after another and sometimes the waitress would stop by and exchange a few sentences with them. She was a short, blond woman. Old enough to be someone's grandmother, but full of life and energy. Carlisle learned that her name was Darla Gibson, and she was what they call a squib. Something else he learned today. A magical person, that can't work magic. As Carlisle discovered that, he wondered if there was a nickname for vampires without special powers too.

Despite tuning out the kids, he noticed that they got a bit louder, but not in a funny, carefree way anymore. It sounded as if they were arguing. But he didn't want to spy on them so he tried to keep ignoring it and focused on Miss Bright instead. But as one of the boys slammed his hands against the surface of the table, he couldn't quite ignore, that they obviously were fighting. And then he just was unable to focus on anything else anymore. The harsh smell of blood caught his attention and he instinctively jumped up and walked over to them, as fast as possible without revealing his true nature.

Emma, first confused when her companion left, yelped as she saw him walking over to the kids that had been fighting. One of the boys was holding his face and blood dripped through his fingers. Emma feared the worst and focused on Doctor Cullen. What would he do? Would he just attack the child and drink his blood? How does that work with Vampires? Can they control their actions or would he just follow his hunger as soon as he smelled blood? She panicked! How could she stop him? She set off to run after him but then noticed how he calmly laid a hand on the boys head and helped him sit down. And then she blushed. Oh my, how stupid. She felt utterly ashamed of her thoughts. How could she have such poor faith in this awesome, nice man she spent the past 2 days with. He didn't act upon his instincts as a Vampire, when he decided to walk over, but his instincts as a doctor. Emma wanted to just vanish, her cheeks burning bright red. She would have slapped herself, for her dumbness, if it wouldn't have looked absolutely crazy. Taking a calming breath she walked over as well.

As Carlisle helped the boy to sit back on his chair, while keeping his head back up, so the blood wouldn't run everywhere. He spoke to the remaining girl. He didn't take his eyes off of the boy while he spoke. "What happened?" He asked in a calm tone that left no doubt that he got the situation under control.

The girl was obviously a little shocked. It took her a few moments to find her voice. "Our friend got angry and wanted to leave. But Harry grabbed his arm, wanted to sort things out. As our friend pulled free he must have hit Harry's glasses against his face." Her voice was shaky and she sounded as if she would burst in tears at any moment.

Suddenly hands wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her back on her own chair. A friendly and calm looking woman with red hair was rubbing her arms. "It will be okay. No worries. This is Dr. Cullen and my name is Emma. We are from St. Mungo's." She smiled encouraging at the girl. "Looks like this is you lucky day, well except this accident obviously."

Confused but relieved Hermione watched as the red haired woman told everyone that there was nothing to see and that the show was over.

Carlisle pulled the boys hands off his face. "Your name is Harry, did I get that right?" he asked friendly.

"Yes…." Harry groaned, obviously in pain.

The man looked careful at the wound. Obviously the glasses broke and cut him right under his eye. But he wasn't sure if there was any glass left in the cut. "I fear this has to get cleaned out, to make sure there are no splinters in the cut." Carlisle explained to Harry. "and you will need new glasses." He added dramatically, as if this was the bigger issue.

This reminded Hermione of something and she snapped back into her usual self. She pulled out her wand and aimed at Harry's broken glasses. "Oculus Reparo!"

First curious then delighted, did Carlisle watch the broken pieces fly off the ground, to meet midair and magically melt back together, before landing on the boys lap. "Just amazing" he breathed, nearly forgetting that he was about to clean a cut.

Emma snickered as he watched Carlisle witness the girls spell. It was a simple one, but still Emma was surprised positively. "That was really good for a witch your age" she said, praising her. "This thing was pretty wrecked." Hermione put on her 'I know the right answer'-look that she often wore during classes.

"Its one of the spells recommended for practicing charms" Hermione said, as if quoting a school book. Forgetting Harry for a moment as well.

At least Emma stayed focused. "Should we bring him to the hospital?" she asked, turning her attention to Harry.

Doctor Cullen shook his head. "No we just clean it and tape it, then it should be fine. It's no deep cut."

Harry sighed relieved. "Sorry Hermione!" he said. "Prof. McGonagall will be angry that we didn't make it home without an incident." He stopped talking when the blond man started wiping his face clean with a wet cloth and sent the woman to go get his things from his room.

Hermione had the same thought, but didn't want Harry to feel bad. "It wasn't your fault Harry." She tried to make him feel better. "I should have known Ron's temper."

Carlisle felt as if he was caught in a private moment that wasn't meant for his ears, but being a part of the situation he felt the need to say something. And even though his children were all well grown up, he didn't lack the experience of a father to add some nice words here. "Whatever it was that made your friend angry, I am sure he will still be your friend when things calmed down. It surely wasn't his intend to hurt you, the way he did." And with his, he finished inspecting the cut. "Looks good to me. I can't see any splinters. It will heal in no time."

As soon as Emma was back, Carlisle fished some tape out of his emergency bag and fixed Harry's cut with it. Hermione and Harry thanked both of them with all honesty and introduced themselves properly.

The four of them spent a little while sitting together and finishing a good lunch, before Hermione and harry decided that it was time to go back to Hogwarts and check on Ron. Emma offered to walk them back and explain to their teacher what happened, to make sure they didn't get into any trouble, but Darla assured that no teacher will hear of the little scene. They said their goodbyes and thanked again for the help and the nice lunch and left.

…

Until they were already on Hogwarts ground neither Hermione nor Harry spoke. Then he took the first word. "I can understand why you want to do this Hermione".

She was scared to pick the topic up again, after it ended so bloody the last time, but was surprised of the reaction her friend showed now.

He continued when she didn't speak. "You know I felt the same back in School. I mean before Hogwarts." He took her hand as they walked " For a while it was so much better when I got here, everything was new and I was someone else." Hermione listened truly interested. "but then I noticed that I already was marked here as well, even more than I was in the muggle world. If I had the chance to escape all that and start over somewhere else, I would do it too." Now he stopped walking and looked at her, turning her around to face him. "So please Hermione do it! We want you to be happy and eventually Ron will understand it as well. He just doesn't have any experience with this." Harry hugged her. "We will still be your friends…..I will still be your friend and we can still see each other at holidays." He let go of her and smiled "Then we have a place to visit during those times, just like everyone else." Hermione was crying like a waterfall already, but had to giggle at the last sentence. For the first time now she felt like she truly had a friend again. And she was happily crying it all out as they went back home.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Time for school**

It was Monday by now. Minerva sat in her office, looking out of her large colorful window and sipped her morning tea. It was 5am and the castle just slowly woke up. The day ahead wouldn't be all that busy, since a lot of students didn't return from their weekend vacation or stayed at the hospital wing. A wave of cold attacked students and teachers. Minerva blamed the constant wet weather, but more so the week immune systems of her students these days. It was because they never spent enough time outdoors anymore. But she welcomed the pause, since she had another task on her list today. The headmaster informed her that a quite strange guest would pay a visit and asked her to show him around. She was shocked to hear about the man. It just didn't make any sense in her head. Vampire and Doctor, how does that go together?

Taking another sip before putting the cup away, she forced herself to not let prejudices take control of her person. She was determined to meet the man with curiosity and kindness. After all Dumbledore told her, he was here to help the wizarding world dealing with his kind after all and she never really met a Vampire yet. They couldn't be all bad, most werewolf's she met up until now were quite interesting people as well. A few drops of rain splashed against her window and the witch took this as the starting sign for her work.

…..

Hermione went to breakfast at the great hall rather early even for her. Ron didn't talk to her after their fight and also the next day he wouldn't stay in the same room. Harry tried to talk some sense into his stubborn head, which only led to them fighting too. Now Ron ignored them both and stuck to his brothers. She felt miserable about the whole situation by now, her happiness about the new chance gone.

An open book laid next to her plate on the table and she appeared to read in it, but she was repeating the same sentence again and again, unable to focus and just kept the book there, so no one would try to chat with her. A trick she picked up over the past months and it worked better than expected.

Slowly the hall filled with more students and teachers, but she expected it to stay somewhat empty, since a lot of students fell ill over the weekend.

After a half hour of sticking to herself, Harry showed up and took a seat across her. "Good Morning Mione." He greeted her with a warm smile. His eyes showed dark circles under them and he put the tape off his cut, that gave quite the contrast to the violet shadows. Obviously he didn't get much sleep. Hermione felt an ill sensation in her stomach…..guilt. "I am sorry Harry, seems like Ron didn't let you sleep" She watched him filling his plate with crazy amounts of food. He shook his head "Not so much Ron himself, more that fact that he is angry with me now." He explained. As he caught sight of Hermione's hurt expression he regret his words immediately. "Don't bother to blame yourself Mione, he will come to his sense soon enough." Harry couldn't stand seeing his friend sad again, after she just gained back her happiness. Not because of him and Ron. That wasn't right. He would make Ron understand, no matter what. Oh boy, what had he gotten into? Hogwarts was supposed to be his happy place. He had to change the general mood.

They finished their breakfast, as Prof. Flitwick announced that a few classes were canceled, since some of the teachers got caught by the cold, that spread through the castle, as well. Harry was obviously happy about the news, while Hermione got angry about the lack of alternative classes. She was alone with her opinion on that one.

Their first class of the day was transfiguration with Prof. McGonagall and she looked forward to this. They would have time off the second and third class, so Hermione already thought about something useful to fill the time with. She wouldn't let Harry lazy around.

…

Carlisle followed the red line that was scribbled on his map, to find the school's entrance. Not like you could overlook such an enormous castle, but he had to admit that finding the right way in wasn't as obvious. He was thankful for the rainy weather, that way he wouldn't draw too much attention and couldn't distract any students. He really didn't want to disturb anyone. As he entered the big entrance hall, a little creature just appeared in front of him. It only reached up to his knees, wore a kind of old robe, that could have been taken for a rag and had long, pointed ears, an even longer nose and pink-ish skin. It eyed him critical "Sir, you aren't a student nor a teacher. Are you a parent?" Carlisle was shocked that the thing actually possessed the ability to speak. He shook his head slowly and knelt down on one knee "I am here, because I was offered a tour." The little monster nodded an disappeared with a snap of his fingers. Surprised Carlisle blinked as he was left alone in the hall. He got up and stared at the now empty spot for a while. What now?

After a while a tall, stern looking lady appeared on top of the stairs to his right and walked towards him quickly. She looked nearly aristocratic in her green robe and the black coat. Only the black hat clearly said 'witch'. Carlisle considered her appearance superior and wondered what Alice would say.

She came to stop before him and held out a hand. "Minerva McGonagall, Professor for Transfiguration and head of the house Gryffindor." She introduced herself proudly and with a voice, that had the firm sound of a strict but loving elder.

He instantly held a lot of respect for the woman. And took her hand, bowing his head to her in a motion that resembled a gentleman taking off his hat in front of a lady. He felt as if the old-fashioned statement wasn't out of place here.

Minerva was more than pleased with the way he greeted her. She didn't see such manners for many years. "You must be Doctor Carlisle Cullen, if I got informed correctly"

He lifted his head, looking into her fascinating eyes, they reminded him of a cat's eyes, "You are, Madam. Pleased to meet you." He couldn't help but let his Vampire-charms work their magic. "I look forward to learn more about this school. I was shocked to find out that I didn't find anything about it during my own research." He exclaimed with faked dramatic. "Surely you got told that I am rather new to your world." He admitted somewhat ashamed.

Oh this day would be more pleasant than she had anticipated, Minerva decided. This man had manners! She led him towards the great hall and asked how he got in contact with the wizarding world. This was the beginning of a pleasant talk.

….

Hermione and Harry sat in one of the window corners, working on their homework for transfiguration, that McGonagall gave them only this morning, when Fred and George disrupted them. Much to Harry's relieve, since he wanted to spend his time of canceled classes with something else than homework. Hermione wasn't so happy about it, but she was glad to see that the twins didn't avoid her, like their younger sibling did. In fact they told her how sad they would be about her leaving, but wished her all good in the world. She just started to like them a little bit more than Ron! Fred carried a pack of sweets, that forced their eaters to produce weird sounds. Harry took one and after a few times of chewing let out a really realistic 'meow'. After several attempts to convince her to eat one too, she gave in and put her hand into the box, grabbing one of the pieces at the bottom. As she popped the candy into her mouth, she saw McGonagall and a familiar blond man round the corner. Shocked to the bones, she tried to quit the process of swallowing the piece of candy, but it was too late. As the two adults were only a few steps away, Georg and Fred vanished like thief's before they got into more trouble, as Hermione let out a soundful "cock-a-doodle-doo" and tried to close her mouth with both hands. It didn't stop the noise from escaping. Harry laughed, holding his belly as he saw the scandalized expression on McGonagall's face while Hermione's face turned tomato red. She turned around, accepting her fate. "Prof. I am sorry….the candy…..Fred and George….I…..ugh" she gave up to try and explain anything and didn't look at the man next to her teacher until Harry managed to control his laugher and approached the adults as well. "Prof McGonagall" he nodded his head in respect…as much as showing respect was possible, half laughing. "Hello Doc! Thanks again." Harry kept snickering and shook the man's hand. Hermione felt even worse now, for not greeting the kind doctor. "Hello Doctor Cullen. I am sorry for…that." She didn't dare meet his eyes, and eyed the floor instead.

Carlisle smiled amused. Enjoying such natural childish behavior in such a wonderful school. "Hello you two. How is my emergency patient doing?" he stared at the cut in Harry's face.

Perplex prof. McGonagall turned to Carlisle and then to her student. "You already met?" she asked, but it sounded like a threat.

Harry suddenly realized that their secret just got lifted, but he didn't want to get Ron into trouble so he decided to go with a half-truth and hoped Hermione and Dr. Cullen would jump on the train with him. "Yeah when we were at the three broomsticks last Saturday my glasses broke and I managed to cut myself. Luckily doctor Cullen was there to help us out." He explained as innocent as possible.

McGonagall intended to lecture the kids for their shameless behavior, but now she felt as if there was some thanks in order for their guest. "It seems like I have to thank you Doctor Cullen. They didn't tell me about that incident, if I would have known I would have thanked you sooner, since the two are students of my house I am responsible for them. Please if you get any…."

Carlisle didn't let her finish the sentence. "It was of no consequences. I did nothing but put a Band-Aid on the boys face." Again he showed this perfect vampire-smile. He really didn't wish any trouble for those two, he started to like them.

Hermione broke the growing silence and tried to change the topic. "What brings you here, sir?" She asked curiously, facing the man.

But it was her Professor that answered. "He was invited for a tour through Hogwarts, but I fear I have to put it to an end now." Now she spoke to the Doctor again. "I am sorry there is much more to see, but I have a class to teach in a little while again." Carlisle looked somewhat disappointed, his curiosity wasn't satisfied yet.

Hermione had the same thought, as Harry already spoke it out loud. "Professor! Our next class got canceled, we could show Doctor Cullen around…..I mean if you would like that, sir." Hermione nodded in agreement and the Doctors face put on a smile.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Time for destiny**

Carlisle enjoyed the chance to get to see this school out of students eyes. Some privilege he never had in his childhood, unless one counts his father's religious lectures as schooling. The two kids showed him their classrooms, and explained a lot about the content of their classes. They showed him some interesting portraits and he never came to get used to them moving and speaking. The boy explained to him that they weren't actual alive but he just couldn't wrap this idea around his thinking. They spoke, they reacted they thought…..he could not see why they would not be alive. He even saw a few ghosts which disarranged his whole idea of a normal afterlife. He would have a lot to think about once he got back into his room at the tavern.

He also took a few minutes to inspect his young tour-guides. When he met them two days before, he considered the boy at least one, if not two years younger than the girl. He was very short and tiny for a boy his age. But today he learned that they were in the same year and must have been about the same age. He wasn't sure how he felt about that and resisted the urge to dive deeper into this issue. He wore old-fashioned glasses, that didn't get produced for kids anymore in this kind of style. You would see grandparents wear such models now. The girl had a huge mess of hair on her tiny head, doubling the appearance of her head size. They both wore similar colored school uniforms. He noticed there being a difference in colors among the students and gathered from the old lady's explanation earlier that it showed, which house they belonged to. He liked this idea. Working with some kind of competition and also giving each kid a place they belong to within their boarding school. It was a really clever system as he thought. He was sure as soon as his children would hear about it they would start bets, who of them would belong in which house.

From the way the two kids interacted, he could tell that the girl was the mature one, always trying to push the boy to some wiser decisions. And it didn't take long for Carlisle to pick up that the boy was some kind of local celebrity. He put a mental note to investigate on this further when he got some time.

The tour came to a pause, when a very old looking man, with crazy colorful robes and a beard longer than Carlisle thought was biological possible, approached them.

"Headmaster." The girl said in acknowledgement. To Carlisle the man seemed a little too old to be a headmaster of school, but as he already noticed, aging seemed to be a different matter in the wizarding world, than it was in the huma…..muggle world. With a slight bow he greeted the man, not sure if he should meet him on eye level, with the same respect he met the kids teacher earlier or like an elder that needs some advice for direction. The man just gave no hint, what to expect of him, which was fascinating in its own. "Headmaster Dumbledore, I assume? Glad I get to meet the man that made this visit possible, bevor it ends"

The old man smiled grandfatherly with a glint in his eyes. "I hoped you would still be around Doctor. Young Miss Bright spoke only good of you. She used to be one of my student back in the days." He laughed a little. "And as I see, you got some very interesting guides as well."

Hermione felt the urge to explain the situation, as if asked. "Professor McGonagall had to attend her class, and since our classes didn't take place, we offered to help her out, sir."

Again the old man had this very friendly smile on his face and still Carlisle wasn't sure what to think of him. "That counts as some extra credit work, if I am not mistaken. 5 Points to Gryffindor for each of you." He said with a smirk. And Carlisle could observe the children's faces light up with happiness. They really seemed into the whole house-points competition. "I think it is time for you to return to your tasks. I believe to remember that Mister Potter has some Quidditch-Training to attend and I am sure you, miss Granger have a lot of things on your agenda for the rest of the day. I will take care of our guest now." He shushed the kids away with a wave of his arms. The wide fabric of his robe looking like wings. They waved a goodbye to Doctor Cullen and started walking to their common room. "How about a cup of tea in my office, Doctor?" he asked and Carlisle couldn't help but feel as if the man was up to something.

"I fear I have to decline the tea, but I wouldn't mind joining you for one." He retorted and didn't feel the need to conceal his vampiric nature.

Suddenly the Headmaster seemed somewhat confused before his expression turned back to the previous one. "ah yes. It's easy to forget that you are indeed a vampire. I know not many of your kind being so relaxed in public." He mused as they started walking to his office.

…

As if hit by lightning, Hermione and Harry stopped in their tracks. Surely the chat not supposed for their ears anymore, as they already were several feet away. They turned both, very slow and carefully to look over their shoulders. All they saw was a piece of colorful fabric rounding the corner, as the two men walked into the opposite direction. Then they stared at each other. Harry's eyes wide in shock and Hermione having an uncomprehending look in her eyes. "V…vampire?" Harry asked, clearly disturbed.

…

The Headmaster led their way to his Office until they stopped at a beautiful Griffin statue. "Cinnamon toothpick" the Headmaster announced and Carlisle wondered if the man lost it now until the Statue started to move and revealed stairs. They stepped on them and waited patiently for the rotation to reach its end.

As they entered the Office, the vampire was once again hit with a mixture of awe, fascination and curiosity. The wonder just would never end, he thought. Not only was the size of the room dashing, also the possibility of a room with so much…..knickknacks, there just was no other word for it, to still look elegant beyond comparison. In each corner were movements or little sounds. It felt as if the room itself was a living creature. As Carlisle turned around himself, trying to take in each detail of the room, and miserably failing, since it was just too much to see, Dumbledore swished his wand letting a teapot hover to fill a cup. "Shall we have a seat?" he asked, obviously amused by the reaction his office set off in the vampire.

Carlisle took a second to gather his thoughts and then accepted to sit down in one of the enormous, soft chairs. A beanbag wouldn't have felt any different.

"How did you like, what you have seen of the school so far?" The headmaster asked and Carlisle couldn't help but feel as if this wasn't what really interested the old wizard.

"It was…magical. Excuse the pun but there really is no better word to describe it." He smiled. "Every kid being able to attend this school must be really happy. Surely the two I've met seem to be."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "It would seem that way, wouldn't it?" Taking a sip he watched the expression on the vampires face turning questioning.

"Are they not?" He asked a little unsure. "they seemed to enjoy their time and only told good things about the school" He replayed the day in his memories trying to find a hint for anything not being well. Maybe he had filtered the reality, because of his excitement?

"Of course they did, they are good kids. They never would speak bad of the school." The wizard praised. "But it appears that our Miss Granger is hoping to leave us soon and attend a different school." Again Carlisle felt as if the older man had something particular in mind when he said that but he couldn't really grab it.

"Oh I am sad to hear that! It's never easy for a child to leave friends behind." He wondered what was behind this story.

Dumbledore took a sip of his tea and spoke again "Miss Bright told me you have children on your own?" Now Carlisle sensed real curiosity in the man's words.

Thinking of his family at home he felt warmth in his chest. There might be no beating heart, but it still could hold the love and affection he felt for his family. "I do." He agreed. "Some would call it a clan or a coven, but we are family. I have a loving wife and five wonderful children at home…six if I count our newest addition even though she is human." He had a feeling the wizard would understand, without further explanation. "Our different way of living, allows us to bond in a more family like way, than most other vampires do." He added somewhat proud.

The older one's face lit up with interest. "So you adopted them all over time? May I ask how old you are?" before the vampire could answer him, he added "Excuse me if I am too curious, but I am always interested in getting to know such impressive people as you clearly are."

Carlisle felt as if the compliment was meant to hide something else but took it anyway. "Oh thank you, but that's too much admiration, we don't deserve. Yes we adopted all of them over the course of over 300 years." He hoped his companion would be satisfied by this answer.

To his surprise the man burst into laughter. "Oh! You make even me feel young again." He managed to state. "although you kept your youth better than I did in half the time."

Carlisle couldn't help but put on an apologetic smile. "It has to have some upsides, being doomed…..everything has it's pros and cons after all."

Now the headmaster was serious again…..as serious as one could be with this grandfatherly aura about them. "From all I've heard so far, I would say you are far from doomed, even blessed with a loving family."

Usually Carlisle would have protested, being called blessed, but he couldn't deny that there was truth in the wizards words.

"I sincerely hope some other people will find such luck too, eventually". The headmaster added, clearly having something or someone in mind but cutting the thought off there.

The doctor wasn't sure if he should ask or leave it be, since he didn't continue the thought. He decided to let it drop and wait if the headmaster would continue explaining this excurse.

He never did.

They kept on talking about the research project, Carlisle was going to work on at St. Mungo's and about Quidditch. Something Emmett would enjoy learning about.

…..

 _ **AN:**_ _I am no fan of Authors notes but I felt it is about time again. I have to thank for all the encouraging, positive reviews. Especially_ _ **Suzululu4moe**_ _! Now I understand why everyone is so addicted to getting them. Please more! Feed my new addiction please.  
Also I hope the story isn't going too slow or too fast for you guys I am somewhat focused on catching situations I could imagine happening that way, that carry over the emotional build up of everyone involved. And ofc…..Dumbledore has to be the one pulling strings as usual….what would be a HP story without Dumbledore meddling around?_


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:** _So Since I wasn't able to post anything over the weekend, here is an extra-long chapter. I hope you enjoy it, I think it turned out super sweet. But maybe that's just because of how I imagine it and doesn't carry over to you guys….i hope it does though. Let me know  
Also I think about instead of one super long story, making 3 shorter ones out of it. What would you prefer?_

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 **Chapter 9: Time for visions**

Until today Hermione grew more and more frustrated, feeling as if the whole conversation she had with the headmaster and her head of house was forgotten. But today she got informed that she was supposed to send documents of her school grades, her wand, since she needed a special license for it, and medical records from both the hospital wing and St. Mungo's over to Ilvermorny. Even though it was just paperwork, it excited her, because it meant that things are moving forward. It's been 3 weeks since her talk with the teachers. She never considered herself impatient but she needed to see something to happen.

However she needed someone to accompany her to the ministry of magic and St- Mungo's to get the documents she needed. She wasn't of age yet, so an adult had to be with her and she wasn't allowed to leave school grounds without a teacher anyway. Since Professor McGonagall was busy with some pranksters in her house (Hermione didn't need to guess who was responsible for that) she recommended Professor Snape to take here there. Much to her approval he had no time either, so she ended up traveling with Professor Flitwick, who happened to have some free time.

Not sure how to feel about that, Hermione ended up liking her company. Professor Flitwick had a lot of interesting facts to share about all kinds of places while they were on their way to the ministry. Once there he also knew a lot of people they met there, former Ravenclaws, and introduced her to some of them. Now Hermione wondered, if Ravenclaw wouldn't have been a better choice for her. Thanks to the many connections the professor held in the ministry and his friendly personality in general, getting her Wand-License was done in no time.

Hermione came to an interesting observation and wondered if it was coincidence or showed an actual pattern. While they met an unusual high amount of former Ravenclaws at the ministry, there were not many of them at St. Mungo's. Instead an awful lot of Slytherins were around, working for the hospital. But she had a slight feeling that this was part of their current unlucky situation. They already waited for nearly an hour when finally prof. Flitwick got hold of one of the nurses being able to tell them why they were here. The employee, that was supposed to sit at the entrance just was nowhere to be found. Then it took another 20 min for the nurse to find someone, who actually could hand out the documents. Not because the hospital was especially busy, no it seems like the staff just was distracted by something else than work today and rather was chatting than working. Hermione rolled her eyes. She knew that the Slytherins in school liked to gossip and always find an easy way to avoid working themselves, but she hoped this would change during adulthood. Their bad luck continued when one of the healers finally got time for them to hand out her files, but discovered that hemiones last checkup was overdue. Not only did it annoy both of them, it also reminded Hermione in a painful way that she was supposed to be here a few days after her parents accident. Her mom already had the appointment in her calendar…..she just never made it here.

The young witch shook her head, to get rid of these thoughts. The professor tried to convince the healer, it was a chubby woman in maybe her 40s, with a friendly face but a strict attitude, that this checkup wouldn't be necessary and could be done at Hermione's new home. He even played the 'dead family – card'. But there was no way around in her eyes. "We can either try to fit you in now and then you have everything ready and can take the file with you or we make an appointment for another day and _then_ u can take the papers. It's up to you" .

With an annoyed huff the girl rolled her eyes and looked at her smaller professor for help. He checked his pocket-watch. "I do have another…..90 minutes." He shot a questioning stare at the healer who frowned "I think that should work, but I can't promise, since we have to squeeze her in." Another worried look at his pocket-watch then to his student "I am going to wait if it takes longer, I have to go back to Hogwarts and will send someone else to pick you up." He said and with an encouraging smile added "But I am sure we will be through until then." Hermione wasn't sure if he tried to convince himself or her.

"Professor, I already used the floo-network before I can just floo back on my own." Hermione offered. She felt bad being such a burden and taking away his whole free time. The nurse nodded in agreement "We can send her back, Professor. That would be no problem. I never heard of a child going missing here." Flitwick looked from the girl to the healer and back, thinking and then nodded as well. "Okay I guess you two are right, but I will wait anyway as long as I have some time,"

Even though she felt somewhat guilty, she was very glad that the wizard stayed with her. If she was alone she would have thought about how this visit should have been months ago….with her mom. The woman send them to the waiting room, that Hermione already knew from previous visits. Her Parents always were so amazed when they used to be here with her. She and Professor Flitwick sat in a windowed corner and chatted a little. He asking questions about her latest work ahead in his class and she asking questions about other magical schools.

….

There was a big window in one of the walls. Behind it was supposed to sit a nurse, taking registrations, but the seat was still empty. If the light in the waiting area would have been less bright, they could have seen an open door in the little room behind the window, that led into a small but cozy pause-area for the staff. There was a small kitchen table a basic kitchen and a few nurses chatting.

Carlisle could tell that Healer Adams ( he still considered it weird that they called themselves healers instead of doctor, but he liked the sound of it) was annoyed and grew more and more impatient all day. Not because the work wasn't going well, quite the opposite. They made great progress with the Serum….or rather potion they were working on. If they actually got it to work, there would be a temporary anti-dote to vampire poison. If taken within the first 24 hours after a bite, it could revert the changing-process. Though until now they only managed to let it work within the first few seconds. They had to get it up to at least 24 hours to actually consider it successful.

No the reason Healer Adams was annoyed anyway, was because his staff just avoided work like the plague these days. The Nurses always tried to find a reason to pass by the research lab instead of caring for their patients and most oft the healers did either the same or wandered around the hospital trying to find a nurse to help them. If they weren't spying at their new vampire colleague, they were gathered somewhere gossiping like schoolgirls.

Carlisle felt sorry and already apologized several times to his temporary boss. Morris Adams was no one who threw fits, so he didn't want to hear any of that, he knew it wasn't Carlisle's fault and expected his staff to be more professional. "You know we had vampires here before…..as patients, that is. So I should have known this will happen with you as well. First they act all scared and freaked out by the thought of having one of your kind around and then they ogle you like they never saw a man before….excuse the comparison." Carlisle laughed a warm laugh. He liked the man, because he never filtered what he said. He was straight forward and named things as they were. Morris let out a sound of annoyance and jumped off his stool. "Let's take a break so I can shush them back to work and you can do your vampire thing, maybe it scares them off and back to their jobs if you drink in the community kitchen!

The hospital was so friendly to actual keep animal blood for him, even though he would have preferred hunting for many reasons, he didn't want to refuse their hospitality and went with those packs. It didn't taste well, being feezed and not as fresh as he was used to but he would never tell that. But he would never actual drink in front of his co-workers. He only needed to every other day anyway. "Sorry Adams, I think I can't do you that favor" Carlisle held his hands up as he declined the great plan "But I wouldn't mind a little break."

They went to the little kitchen behind the registration and Morris frowned again as he noticed the seat there was empty. The kitchen was crowded by mainly female employees…..chatting and shutting up immediately when the two men entered. Now they just stared. It reminded both of them of a bunch of fish staring. Now Adams exploded, he threw the papers he held in his hands on a kitchen counter, producing a loud _bang_ and put his hands on his hips, the lab-coat already had it's sleeves rolled up which made him look especially intimidating. "You lazy pack, stop the chatting and start the working or I have each of you clean the toilettes with toothbrushes! There are god damn sick people waiting for your attention so stop your little girly hearts from jumping out your chest every time you see our new handsome addition, get your panties dry again and get the hell out of here. Go go go go!" He shushed them out and chased them a good part of the way to make sure they actually get to work. Carlisle could here him yell a while longer down the hall and smiled amused. Sure it was a little harsh, but not undeserved.

Two people stayed in the kitchen. A female Healer, he knew as Corinna Bardson and a male nurse, whose name he forgot, but he didn't want to ask again. Bardson was preparing some tea for herself, while the other man was smoking and reading the newspaper. Carlisle sat across, pretending to enjoy the needed rest and stared at the moving pictures at the back of the newspaper for a while. Then he stared out of the door and the window to the waiting room. It was pretty full. "Is anyone going to take this registration seat any time soon?" he asked trying very hard not to sound accusing. The man answered him " If Niki doesn't show up, I will do it…..after my break. I deserve 10 minutes, the girls had me do their load of work all day since they were…busy" With the last word he looked over his newspaper at Carlisle with a demeaning stare. The vampire flinched a bit, it actually hurt his feelings. He stared out of the window again and then recognized a familiar face. "Oh" he let out surprised. Bardson turned around "What is it?" she asked with her remarkable melodic voice. Carlisle considered her less gossipy and more friendly than most female healers he met so far. "The girl there in the waiting room I already met her a few times." Corinna scanned the waiting room to see who he was referring to. "Oh Hermione Granger" She said matter of factly and Carlisle stared at her wondering if she was aware that she wasn't supposed to share personal information but let it drop. Maybe she knew the girl personally "So that's her name. I only knew Hermione." He said. Corinna nodded "Yeah, She's from Hogwarts. Lives there since her Parents died a few months ago. Poor thing. Poppy….Hogwarts' healer", she explained remembering that Carlisle wouldn't know the name "always told me what a gifted and smart witch the girl was, hoped she would become a healer later, but I don't think she keeps that performance up in her current situation." Again Carlisle's stomach turned a little, witnessing the woman giving away such personal information so freely, but he was too curious to actually complain. "I didn't know that. That is sad to hear. So I assume one of the teachers serves as guardian, if she lives at school?" He was confused, didn't the headmaster mention that she was about to visit another school. The woman next to him shook her head and popping her lips while she thought. "No I think poppy said, they took her in until they found a foster family, but with the whole rumors about Hogwarts not being safe anymore and the hire of Slytherin having returned, they had no luck finding a place for her, since she is muggleborn….really sad that so many good situated families are still that frightened by such rumors." She explained while she sipped her tea. Carlisle had to correct his opinion on her, she was a gossip-mouth after all. But right now he had nothing against it. He didn't understand half of what the woman just said but was sure he picked up the most important information. "Why is she here?" he asked knowing that in a normal hospital no one would tell him unless she was his patient….but they didn't seem to take it that strict with confidentiality. "I took her registration earlier. She was here to pick up her files, since she seems to be moving…I have to ask poppy about this one" she took a mental note to herself "But I saw that her last checkup was supposed to get done months ago, so I required to get that done before I give away the files. Though I couldn't find Healer Millan so far to tell him to get that done real quick. He should be free but….nowhere to be found."

"I can do that if you want." Carlisle offered, trying not to show his personal interest on the case. "I mean it's just a basic checkup I doubt you do that any different than we do….I can't see magic being involved in taking blood pressure ." He pulled his eyebrows up wondering how that would work. Bardson laughed "No…no magic there, you indeed could do that for us. You can use my examination room it's number 028. I have a break for another 20 minutes." Again Carlisle couldn't help but notice how different things worke here. No one had a personal room back in his hospital, but he would have liked that sometimes. He hated when he got a room where nothing was left, where it was supposed to be. He nodded as if getting ready to work, hiding his excitement to be able to ask the girl some question. He wasn't really sure where the sudden interest came from. The girl wasn't that interesting to him when they met before, but he knew something was off with her and now that she was around without the boy it was even more obvious. Surely there wasn't something right with the boy too and it somehow distracted him before and now he was so close to lifting one of those secrets, he just had to go for it. "Thank you Corinna." He got up. She smiled a friendly smile "No thank you, I already feared I have to send her home again." She pointed to the left "That direction" she corrected the vampire as he started walking the wrong way. "I will tell her to come and see you" she offered and he nodded his thanks.

…..

Hermione started to fight sleep. Just sitting and waiting got boring fast and her Professor now was consumed by an interesting article in one of the magazines. She jolted up in alarm as her head actually nodded off. Now she felt dizzy from her sleepiness and the uncontrolled movement her head just performed. But she got forced to focus when the healer from earlier walked over to them. "Someone got time for you now, dear. I will show you the way." Flitwick grinned glad to finally get things done and assured her to be waiting here for her." Hermione felt somewhat embarrassed, partly for her sleepiness partly for the whole situation, but thanked him as she got up to follow the woman. Once they reached the right room she opened a door for her, throwing it open with her whole body weight and letting her in. She gave her a wink and an encouraging smile and left the room, closing the door behind her again." Hermione wondered how someone can have so much energy…..she was far from that right now. She couldn't help a yawn as she scanned the room for another person and blinked blank as she saw the familiar blond man.

"Hello Hermione, nice to see you again" He smiled and walked slowly over to her.

She looked at him skeptical. Evaluating how to react, considering the newest information she gathered about him. Her logic won the battel so she didn't resist when the man put a hand on her upper back leading her to the examination table. "Hello Doctor Cullen" she greeted in a neutral tone. "I am a little surprised to see you here to be honest." She confessed. She caught herself being more reserved than she used to be around the man but couldn't really help it.

Doctor Cullen put on a warm smile. "Yes I am not supposed to be here for this kind of work, but they were short on a healer, so I filled in." He explained. The friendly sound of his voice was supposed to calm Hermione down, but now that she knew what he was it send shivers down her spine and she felt the urge to run for her life. The doctor continued "So if you don't mind me doing your checkup…." He left the sentence unfinished as he noticed Hermione going all tense. "Are you alright?"

Again Instinct and logic battled inside of Hermione's head. How should she react. She knew, that she wasn't good at faking carefreeness but it seemed rude to not explain anything. She decided to just tackle to topic.

She took a deep breath and turned around to face the Vampire. "You know if Harry were here instead of me he would try to run for his life….I'm sure of that." She started. "We heard Dumbledore and you talking back in school." She looked to the floor ashamed for admitting that they were indeed eavesdropping, although it wasn't intentionally It felt wrong. Also she felt fear creeping up her thoughts.

Carlisle pulled a stool to him and sat down on it to be on eye level with the little witch. "Ah I see and now you are scared because you know that I am a Vampire" he said fatherly. Confused Hermione looked up into his face and instantly down again, blushing at being caught. "Yet I don't see you running out screaming" He said in a questioning tone.

Hermione swallowed before speaking "I just try to see things with some reasoning". She explained with an unusual thin voice.

Carlisle lifted his eyebrows "So why don't you see the need to run?" He asked curiously.

Hermione looked up a little without lifting her head. "Well first you didn't hurt Harry when he was hurt, you helped him." Her chin rose up a little "And everyone seems to know what you are, yet you are here and working….in a hospital!" her head went even higher "And you just never gave me a reason to actually be scared" Now she was looking him into the eyes "It's just my nerves going a little crazy because of what I red of vampires so far." She let a breath out she was holding, finishing her explanation.

Carlisle chuckled silently and then took the girls small hands in his. "look Hermione, there is no reason to be scared of me. I promise you that much." He looked into her surprised face. "I tell you what. You can ask me anything you want, that helps you be less scared of me, if I get to ask some questions as well."

Hermione was thinking a few seconds, then agreed. That sounded fair to her. "alright. But I don't think I have much interesting to tell you." She said sheepishly.

"Oh I think there are plenty of interesting things to know about you, young lady." He laughed. "Hop up and sit on the table" he said but already lifted her up as he did so. A startled squeak escaped her mouth and again she couldn't stop her cheeks burning red when the doctor laughed.

He sat back down in front of her. "Okay you start" he offered.

Hermione thought for a moment and then settled for a rather smart questions, that would solve a few mysteries at once. "Why is no one bothered by your presence here?" She asked curiously.

Carlisle formed a delightful but silent 'Oh' with his lips. The little witch asks smart questions he thought. "Because I mean no harm to humans…..or human-similar creatures I should add here." He thought of all the ….. _Persons_ ….he met at this place. "I raised my family to live vegetarian, as we call it" He laughed again.

Hermione got that she missed the joke there. Confused she stared at the man "So you drink only orange juice?" She asked sarcastically.

"Ah! My turn." Carlisle interrupted. Hermione frowned at that but gave in.

"The headmaster told me you want to visit another school." Carlisle tried to let it sound like a 'by-the-way'-information "Why? If you don't mind me asking. You seem to like Hogwarts." He didn't want to come off to intruding so he walked over to the desk, looking for things he would need while he gave her time to answer.

Hermione wondered for brief moment why this would interest him, but then decided that he probably just would ask random questions to keep the conversation going. So she answered "A few months ago, something terrible happened." She stopped to think how much she should tell him but decided that digging around was neither clever nor fair "I lost my parents in an accident." She said that rather cold and was surprised herself, how distant it sounded. "Ever since everyone acts different at Hogwarts and I don't feel good there anymore. And besides that thy can't find a family for me here, so we agreed to try in America. I like the school settled there for a new start and the wizarding world over there is more tolerant when it comes to wizarding heritage." She turned a little excited talking about it.

Carlisle followed her speech with interest, but didn't fail to notice that her fear of him appeared to be forgotten so he put the medical bag he found at the table next to her and started his checkup while she spoke. This plan went pretty well she didn't protest and was so focused on talking that she just did as told, when he asked her to free her arm for him.

While Carlisle put the cuff around her upper arm in a swift movement she debated what question to ask next. "So what about the vegetarian thing?" She asked impatiently.

"Mhhhh" Carlisle tried to focus on two things at once now "We only drink Animal-Blood. The Vegetarian-Phrase is our little inside joke." He could see that the little witch expected more "Do you want to know how you can tell if a vampire feeds from human blood or not?" he asked her, hoping to keep her fearless curiosity up. She nodded eager and he tapped right under his eye. "Eye color" he exclaimed. "Red eyes, show that they drank human blood. Ours are typically golden and a hungry vampire will have black eyes."

Hermione smiled a proud smile. "I did read about the black eyes before!" she told him. He could see now, that she must be a bookworm.

It was his turn again. "Did you find a family in America? I assume so, since you are here to gather your files." He said taking off the cuff, not entirely happy with the result he got. He took a note on her paper.

Hermione attempted to shake her head but he held her still. "I will check your eyes, try not to move" he explained. Hermione tried not to move her Head while speaking "No! Headmaster Dumbledore is looking for a family to take me in, but wasn't successful yet I think. But the new school requested some documents, since I already got enrolled there. Seems like the Headmaster is positive to find a place for me until then…..I am not so confident anymore." She added a little sad.

He was checking her ears now and she didn't wait long before firing her next question. "You said you have family? How does that work? I never red about vampires having families….maybe clans though." She had to force herself not to turn her head and look at him. He cam back into view and stopped busying around for a moment.

"That is because usually we never can stay on one place for too long. But our diet allows us to have a permanent home, like every other family. I have a wife, Esme, and five children. They all go to the local school like every other teenager….even though they do so not for the first time." He smiled a little sad at her, remembering that she has no such place anymore. "It is a loving family home, no clan." He had to make that difference clear.

Hermione's eyes shone bright with interest as she listened. Their question game went on as they went through the rest of her checkup and came to an end, when Carlisle filled in the last notes on her paper.

He looked over it and his lips formed a thin line, not looking all to happy. Hermione however didn't notice, their conversation made her feel bursting with the energy of curiosity.

"Hermione?" Doctor Cullen started a little frustrated.

"Hmm?" She answered as her feet dangled back and forth.

"Do you do any sports or go outside a lot?" He asked a little distracted

"Not if I can avoid it!" She explained puzzled about his intention. "I prefer the library."

Carlisle tried to focus on the conversation but another thought pulled his attention and he failed trying to sort out both thinking paths. "Your blood pressure is a little low, nothing to worry about, but being out in fresh air wouldn't be a bad idea." He advised somewhat absence.

Hermione's expression turned a little frustrated but she mumbled her okay.

The vampire pulled himself out of thoughts and stood up, leading the little witch to the door. "Well your ready to fly…..or at least leave" he joked. "I hope being in one room with a scary vampire wasn't too bad."

The girls face brightened with a joyful smile. His heart melted at that sight, knowing her a little better now. "No. It absolutely wasn't" She said happily. " I will convince Harry not to run from you when you are around next time."

He led her back to the waiting room and wondered if he should tell her that he won't be here for long anymore, or not. He decided against it. No need to destroy the happiness she just caught.

As they entered the room, she walked straight over to the tiny Professor waiting for her. He followed and greeted the man briefly. He told him that everything was alright and that a nurse will copy the files for them so they can take the copies with them. The professor interrupted him, waved his wand, and a copy of the requested papers just appeared above the originals in his hands. He couldn't help but look absolutely shocked about that. After a few seconds, finding his composure again, he handed them over and they said their goodbyes.

"Thank you…..For the talk and everything…" Hermione said a little shy as they went to leave.

Carlisle smiled until they were out of sight.

It was 5pm by then and he had enough on his mind to leave for today. He went looking for Healer Adams, told him he would quit. He already was there for 12 hours, so no one protested.

While he pulled the portkey, to his room at the three broomsticks out of his locker, he already was deep in thoughts, and as he arrived in his room, the decision was already made.

….

….

 _(Cullen's Home)_

Jasper laid on their bed, focused on a book he was reading for the 4th time now, but it never stopped to catch his interest. Alice rested next to him, head on his chest and her feet tapped along to the music she was listening to, silently she hummed along the violin, when Jasper suddenly felt her whole body go tense. Her humming stopped.  
He held her and stroke her shoulder, while the vision held her in its claws.

When she snapped out of it she smiled at him. "It seems like Carlisle's trip turns out to be a win for the whole family." She said, riddle-like as usual.

"You are not going to explain that further, aren't you?" he chuckled and kissed the top of her head.  
"No" Was all answer he got, but he didn't want to complain, he could feel her happiness and knew it would be nothing bad.

Right in this moment, Alice phone rang. It was Carlisle…..

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 **AN:** _I feel bad for letting the Slytherins look so bad in this one, my heart beats silver-green and usually I am always up for defending the good attributes of the snake-house ^^' but it just had to serve the story now. So I apology to all Slytherins out there._


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Time for some talks**

 _(Cullen's home)_

In a room at the end of the floor, an alarm went off. The clock showed 7:00 am. Esme, who was sitting downstairs in the family area, heard someone hitting the alarm off. The family made a habit out of it to try and be especially quiet at night time, when Bella decided to sleep over. The alarm was the sign for everyone, that they could stop being extra silent.

Esme got up and walked over to their kitchen, to prepare some breakfast for the girl. She knew Bella would complain and insist that she was old enough to make her own breakfast, but Esme just had nothing else to do and enjoyed caring for the human.

As she just poured some orange juice in a glass, she saw Jasper and Alice walking up to her. Jasper sat on the counter, smiling like the devil that ate all the candy when no one was looking.

"Okay what are you up to?" Esme glared at them both as Alice danced around her.

"Jasper and I thought a vacation would be nice. Some sibling-bonding time." She smiled innocently. And Esme raised a questioning brow.

"When and where to and most importantly why?" She had no good feeling by the way her children came up with this request. As suddenly, she found herself in a generous mood. She rolled her eyes. "Jasper stop that!"

The young man laughed as his mother shushed him out of the kitchen. "Sorry Alice! I tried to help you" he said with an apologetic voice as he got forced to leave.

Alice was on her own now to set the plan to motion. "You know that everyone is a bit moody lately. It drives Jasper nuts! And we thought a trip with only us and Bella would be nice to smooth things. Maybe to Italy. Bella could get to know where her name-origin lays."

Esme frowned as she put a plate, the juice and a bowl with some fruits on Bella's usual place. "I mean this doesn't sound like a bad idea" She gave in "but don't you think it would annoy Rose and Emmett? You would have to take a lot of breaks for her sake and no party nights, she needs sleep." Esme was contemplating her daughters idea.

"Who needs sleep?" A less melodic voice asked, stopped by a yawn.

"Good morning Bella, dear" Esme greeted, friendly as Alice already interrupted.

"You need sleep! Even when wo go on vacation! What would you say to a trip to Italy with us?" Alice asked, knowing that Esme could not deny Bella any wish.

"Alice!" Esme complained. "We didn't finish discussing that, yet."

"When?" Rose entered the kitchen as well, not able to tune out the talk that was going on.

Esme started to feel horribly ignored by her children. "Rose, no! not you too!" She argued.

"Next week!" Alice suggested happily that their mom just got outnumbered. "We would have 2 days off of school anyway and only would miss 3. We can convince Charlie, because Bella got an A on her last test."

Bella blinked confused "I did?...yay!"

Alice smiled at her knowing she double surprised her human friend with this information.

Esme decided to try one more time "but you know exactly well, that your dad will be coming home then. You would miss his arrival." She was a little shocked that their kids doesn't seem to care.

Rose was thinking for a second "But it's not like he won't be there when we get back, right?" Alice nodded in agreement.

Time to give up, Esme thought "Okay okay if you insist. I think it would be nice if you all get to spend some time together". Everyone was already about to cheer when she continued "BUT you will take breaks, all of you, when Bella gets tired. You wont leave your brother behind with her. And you let her sleep at night!" She ordered now in a more commanding tone than before, so they had to take her warning serious.

Bella felt like a heavy stone, that got tied to everyone's ankle suddenly, but didn't want to complain about a free vacation.

Esme glared longer at Rose than at anyone else. The blond woman just sighed annoyed. "Yes mom, I will look out for the human" she answered, sarcastically hugging a more than startled Bella from behind, giving a fake smile."

"Good." Esme smiled "make sure you are all back by Saturday and talk to Charlie"

And suddenly she was looking forward to a week to spend alone with her husband….maybe Alice had not only evil plans in mind.

…..

 _(Hogwarts)_

Carlisle suddenly felt unusual nervous as he waited for the headmaster to show up. After his talk with Hermione the other day, he made the decision to try and speak to the headmaster about her foster family issue. He called Alice to ask her how to approach this topic best, and she already knew what he was up to. His sudden determination must have set off a vision in her.

She assured him that he should speak to the headmaster and she would handle things at home. He trusted his daughter to know what's best and agreed to leave things to her.

So now he sat here, anticipating a talk about the future of a girl, he wasn't even sure would want this. Maybe he should have spoken to her first. Was this even a wise idea? He already had 5 children at home…..6 if he counted Bella and this girl here was so much younger and she already was scared of him, what if she would be scared for her life at the idea of living with 7 vampires. This was a stupid idea. He should just leave.

And then he heard someone clearing his throat. The headmaster walked up to him, shook his hand and sat behind his desk. Carlisle took the same big chair he occupied last time. "Good morning headmaster, thank you, that you make time for me." He greeted the old man.

The wizard smiled "Oh, nothing to thank for, I awaited your visit." There was a shine in his eyes, as he looked over his glasses.

"you awaited me?" Doctor Cullen was puzzled. "Why, if you don't mind me asking?"

A mischievously grin spread on the headmasters lips. "I just had a feeling you would want to talk to me." He hinted. "it seems like the talk you had with young miss Granger at the hospital was quite inspiring. She was in a remarkable good mood ever since."

Carlisle felt praised for something that was not worth the honor, but it made him remember, how happy the witch talked away, during their question game. Suddenly he felt bad for considering to just leave things as they are. He gathered his thoughts and focused on why he came here in the first place.

"That is why I am here to talk to you, headmaster." He began and got surprised by an unexpected response.

"You want to ask me if you could serve as foster family." Dumbledore stated. It was clearly no question.

Carlisle blinked blankly, despite the fact that he didn't need to blink. "Yes. How did you….." he recalled their previous talk for a moment. "OH!" he exclaimed louder than normal for him "You planned that all along, didn't you!" he felt betrayed and perplexed at once. He couldn't help but admire that skill of manipulation.

The headmaster laughed in this grandfatherly manner again "I just knew it would fit together pretty well. More of a feeling than a plan really."

He sounded honest, but Carlisle just could not believe that excuse for a second.

The wizard continued "Good thing, everything is practically ready for her to move. All that is missing is a family to take her in." he gave a wink.

Now the vampire felt like a train without a railroad. "So how did you want to go on from here?" still convinced the elder had a plan.

And he did! "We already talked with miss Granger, she is supposed to drop out of school for the rest of this semester as soon as we found someone who is willing to take her in. So she can settle in, in her new home and get to know the people. She is diligent and clever enough to keep her schoolwork up at home. After Christmas she is supposed to be in Ilvermorny…they know about her situation and have everything set up for her arrival." The headmaster looked out of his window as if he was mentally going through a check list. "I can't promise that she will adapt instantly over there, she maybe has to repeat a year."

Carlisle was a little overwhelmed by so much information and by how easily the wizard was ready to hand over a child…a living human child. "You really expect this to work out smoothly, don't you?" Carlisle asked a little critical. "You are aware that we are 7 vampires. It's not really the safest kind of family environment." Now he wondered about himself…..why exactly did he try to talk his family bad?

The headmaster gave him a nearly disapproving stare "It's not more dangerous than living in a wizard family, believe me doctor." He laughed. "My suggestion would be, that you ask her . If she agrees, take her home with you. If she doesn't like it she still can come back to us. And of cource you can contact us if there are any problems or questions"

He could agree with this plan. Still never in his over 300 years he felt so tricked. Entirely confused and not sure if this was a win or not, he allowed the headmaster to lead him to meet Hermione.

…

The Gryffindor sat in the third row in her transfiguration class, trying to focus while she kept getting distracted by Harry. Harry tried to explain the current spell to Neville, but kept asking her for more detailed explanations. And then there was Ron, who was sitting in the last row, still not speaking to either of them and glaring angrily at Hermione's back. She practically could feel his stare burning.

The class went on like this for a while, until a knock at the door pulled Professor McGonagall's attention away from class.

Everyone turned around to look, who it was, that dared to disturbed Minerva McGonagall's lesson. Hermione had none of this curiosity and kept perfecting her notes. But Harry elbowed her.

"Mione! Look there" Annoyed she huffed but turned to see who it was. Somewhat shocked she let her quill fall on the paper, when she saw doctor Cullen, standing next to the headmaster. She somehow knew that they came for her even before the Professor spoke up.

"Miss Granger, would you come here for a minute, please?" The older Woman requested and like a remote controlled toy, Hermione got up and stalked out of the class room. She tried to ignore all the curious stares of her classmates, but couldn't ignore one particular pair of eyes.

Ron's glare turned from anger to confusion and then to a fearful look, that she couldn't quite place.

She reached the door and slipped out "Yes, professor?" She eyed the three adults.

"come back in when you are done here." Her head of house ordered, and went back to her class, closing the door behind her.

Hermione saw her headmaster's friendly smile and a rather unhappy looking doctor Cullen. All color left her face. "Is…..Is something wrong with me?" She asked distraught. It was the only reason she could come up with, that made the Doctor visit her here, in school…..during class.

Carlisle stared at the girl with a rather blank look. Suddenly he had to laugh. It never occurred to him that she would interpret his visit this way.

Dumbledore laid a hand on the girls shoulder. "Oh no! That's not at all the reason!" he chuckled amused. "I will leave you two alone to talk. You can find me in my office, when u are done" he addressed Carlisle and then walked away, humming a weird melody.

Curiosity bubbled up in Hermione's thoughts. "Then why are you here?" She asked the blond man.

His face seemed friendlier now. "Come lets walk a bit, while we talk" he let Hermione choose a direction and started walking. After a few steps, as he felt out of reach for little spies, he spoke up. "I am not here because of your last visit in the hospital" he started and then felt the need to correct himself. "Well no that's not entirely true. I am, but because of the talk we had."

He could see some conclusions forming in the girls head, as her expression went from a puzzled look to an understanding 'oh'.

He continued "Your headmaster told me a few things about you when I was here last time and after our talk this week, I could count one and one together slowly." He knew that she had an idea what he was up to. "You know I have a big family."

Hermione stayed silent waiting for more input, she didn't want to experience any embarrassment if she got the situation wrong after all.

When she didn't say anything he kept going. "Since you already know that we are vampires, you probably could guess that all my kids are adopted."

No she didn't know, because she didn't think about that, Hermione had to admit to herself. But it made perfect sense!

Now Carlisle stopped walking and knelt down to be able to look in her face. "Now I was thinking after our talk and came to the conclusion, that it wouldn't hurt to add one more member to our lovely patchwork family, if this is what you want as well." He offered.

Hermione didn't move for a while, just staring at him. Still somewhat scared to run into some kind of trap here. It took a few seconds until she actually trusted her own thought to get his intention right.

When she finally was sure she got it, she couldn't really think clear. She jumped forward, closed her arms around the man's neck and hugged him with all the gratitude she had. When she finally let go again she smiled wide, but her eyes gathered unshed tears. "really?" She asked in utter disbelief. "You really would do that?"

….

Carlisle nervousness fell off of him, when the young witch fell around his neck and hugged him. It was a weird sensation that startled him but at the same time felt just right. The little warm human that tried to hug him with all strength, which wasn't much compared to the hugs Alice attacked him with. He felt relieve take over. For a while the vampire was honestly scared that the child would not want him or his family.

When she let go of him, he could see the tears in her eyes and all doubts washed away. He did the right thing! He took a few minutes to convince her that he was serious and that there was no reason to cry, even though it was sheer happiness that caused her reaction.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Time to say goodbye**

 _(Hogwarts)_

Hermione was packing up a few things. All the stuff she wouldn't need for the rest of the week. Her Summer clothes, The Quidditch Equipment she never used and never will use, A few Books she might wouldn't need but she would put them of top, just in case she needs them anyway.

It felt crazy. This was her last week in Hogwarts. Her brain couldn't really catch this. She knew she was supposed to freak out or feel somewhat melancholic, but she had none of that yet. She was sure it would catch her sooner or later.

She didn't tell anyone except harry, about what happened when the doctor wanted to talk to her. Harry was happy for her, but the sadness was way heavier. He and Hermione got to be really close again ever since their talk in the three broomsticks. Now he felt as if he's losing his best friend. Hermione was thinking about what to say to make him feel a little better, but there just were no words.

A knock at the door, pulled her out of thoughts. "Yes?" she asked, curious who it could be. Her roommates never knocked. Surprised she watched as a certain bunch of red hair slid through the door.

"Can…..can I talk to you?" Ron stared at his feet ashamed, only letting his head pass the doorway and hiding the rest of himself behind the wooden door. He was by far the last person Hermione expected to speak with tonight.

"uhm…sure come in Ron, no ones here except me." She wasn't sure how to act. Happy, that he talks again? Angry, because of how he acted lately? Sad, because they wasted their last days together with ignoring each other? The uncertainty about this, made her next comment sound a little bit too harsh. "What do you want?" she unintentionally barked at him.

Ron's pouted and avoided looking directly at his friend. "I…if you don't want me here, I can leave again." He mumbled to a random spot at the wall.

There was a moment of awkward silence, neither of them speaking. Hermione felt too proud and to much in the right position to actually apology for her slip off there and Ron wasn't sure if he was here as friend or enemy.

After a few painful moments of silence it was surprisingly him who took the first word. As he stared around the room and noticed all the piles of clothes and books and the half filled trunk he remembered why he came here. "You….you are leaving, aren't you?" he asked a little shy, scared for her answer. He knew it the second she left the classroom earlier to talk to this stranger. It just hit him like a bludger.

She nodded somewhat hesitantly. "At the end of this week" it was nearly a whisper. She knew it would hurt Ron, but it wasn't something she could exactly keep a secret. Even if she could he deserved her honesty, let alone for making the first step in talking to her again.

Ron scratched his right elbow nervously, still avoiding to look at Hermione. "The strange man that was there today…..is that who you are going with?" he tried to make it sound like a casual question, but failed.

"Yeah." Hermione answered more confident now, feeling an echo of the happiness she felt earlier. "Doctor Cullen, we met him…" Hermione remembered their fight in the broomsticks "never mind." She said finally. "He is a really kind man and he has a few children adopted already" she tried to change the topic.

They got interrupted by two Gryffindor girls, that entered the room. Both shot a disapproving look at Ron, clearly not being happy to have a boy in their room, but they did not dare to give Hermione the same attitude instead they greeted her with a soft "Hi, Mione" and went to sit on one of their beds to chat.

Hermione's face turned red, knowing exactly well, that the girls would turn this situation into their newest gossip. "Maybe we should move this talk to the common room?" Hermione offered and Ron gave a dedicated nod.

It didn't take long for Harry to join them once they moved to the common room. Hermione sat on the ground on that red-golden carpet she knew she would miss. Her head rested on one of the comfy couches , that harry went to sit on. Ron took another seat on the floor, surrounded by some candy his brothers got him. Not out of brotherly love, but to make him shut up when he was complaining about his two friends to them, earlier this week. All of his siblings made pretty clear, that they would side with Hermione, if they had to. Not necessarily because she was right, but because it gave them a reason to prank him whenever they felt like it.

There was a rather strange moment, when Harry joined them and Ron apologized for the broken glasses. But ultimately they all were a lot more relaxed, being together as a trio again. They stayed up way too long that night. Catching up on the events they missed in each other's life sharing some crazy ideas about how Hagrid went shopping for clothes his size. They wondered if he made everything….and they meant _everything_ , himself or if the tailor in town did such custom work. Ron shared a few more stories from home. It kept on until 11pm, when their prefect caught them still awake and send them to bed along with a few curses and lectures.

Hermione finally had a deep slumber again this night.

…

 _(The Three Broomsticks)_

Carlisle paced up and down in his room for a while. He felt a little unhappy that he couldn't convince himself to stay longer to finish the potion they were working on, but if he was perfectly honest, then he couldn't do much at this point anyway. He helped them sorting out the mystery of vampire venom, and wasn't any help in the actual part of brewing the potion in a way, that would extend it's duration. And his family needed his attention, there still were things to be solved, even more so now that he would bring Hermione. He was nervous about that. Alice promised she would take care of everything at home, but why hadn't Esme called him yet then?

He felt as if something was not as it should be, so he made the call. Standing at his window, looking out at all the crooked roofs, that should by no means be stable that way, he picked Esme's contact and pushed the call button. It only rang one time before she picked up.

"I wondered when you would finally would miss me enough to call." His wife joked on the other side of their connection. Carlisle let out a chuckle. Oh how he had missed her voice, the version that came through his phone was only a weak copy of the original. "I hope you are not calling to tell me, that you have to stay longer" She threatened in a played strict manner.

A wide smile spread on his face. How could he ever be able to do such a thing to her. "No, no darlin. I will be home by Friday night." He tried to pacify her and could nearly hear how her facial expression changed to her usual warm smile.

"Good! Because I think Alice tried to give us some private time, the kids will all be gone by Friday for a whole week." Her voice shifted to a seductive melody. Usually Carlisle would have been down for this game at any time but in this particular situation it made him freeze like a statue.

"Didn't Alice talk to you?" he asked somewhat shocked. There was some silence. He wasn't sure if Esme tried to recall information or was making up murder plans for her daughter.

Finally she spoke "Nothing besides their trip to Italy." She hinted, clearly waiting for more input.

Now the doctor turned nervous. What did Alice think? "Mh….I am sorry my love, but I won't be returning alone…..Alice said she would talk to you and that everything would be good." Now this was more a mantra to himself than any useful information for his wife.

Esme, the perfect housewife as always didn't get angry at him. "Who are you bringing, so I know what to prepare for?" was all she asked.

He felt his heart ache to take her in his arms. She was just so very kind. "Oh dear, you know that you are the best, right?" he memorized the soft chuckle on the other end of the call. "You know what, just prepare one of the bedrooms…I think Alice' will do, as little reminder for her broken promise." An evil smile spread on his face. "We can speak about anything else when I am there and find a more permanent solution."

Again some silence, before she spoke "A more permanent solution? How long will our guest be staying?" She asked a little confused.

Now Carlisle realized what his daughter had in mind when she didn't say anything. "Let it be a surprise, darlin. You will like her." This was all hint he gave her.

"Oh Carlisle, I hope you aren't up to anything risky!" She admonished him. Even though she never saw him taking a risk that would have been too much for the family.

"No worries Esme, this will be alright. I see you on Friday my love." And then they hung up. He hoped it would really be alright.

…..

 _(Hogwarts)_

Friday came faster than felt proportional to the rest of this week. Now Hermione had all her Bags and her Trunk packed up. She had cried out badly, when she put her School-uniform along with all other Gryffindor Things in one of her bags, knowing that she would not need them anymore.

Everyone was at class, except her, Harry and Ron. The headmaster excused them, so they could say goodbye properly.

Hermione stood surrounded by all her belongings in the big hall at the main entrance. She was sobbing. Tears ran down her cheeks and gathered at her chin, ready to drop into her scarf at any moment. Snot gathered on her upper lip and she resisted to wipe it all away with her sleeve. Ron didn't gave a better image. Even though he saw no reason not to wipe himself clean with his sweater. Only Harry kept any fluids from smudging his face, although he wasn't less affected by the moment. He just kept in mind how much better Hermione looked ever since she confessed her plans to them. He was sure this would be for the better.

"maybe this all was a bad idea and I should tell doctor Cullen that I stay here." Hermione mumbled between some sniffles.

Ron nodded in agreement. "Yes! You can't leave us alone" he cried.

Harry decided that he had to be the adult this time, since Hermione clearly wasn't in the condition to use her wits. "I don't want to hear any of that, Mione!" he scolded her. "if you aren't scared to live in a house full of vampires, then you should not be scared of leaving us either"

Ron's face turned into a grimace, that could clearly be read as a horrified 'WHAT'? since Hermione purposefully 'forgot' to tell him this detail. But he never got to word his question as Harry continued

"We still can send owls and I am sure we can visit! If any of us is able to pull off such a restart, than it's you! You hear me" he hugged Hermione tight and she pulled Ron into this hug as well.

"I thought this will be a happy departure" a grandfatherly voice made the trio let go of each other. "It doesn't happen every day that someone finds the luck of home" Dumbledore reminded. He handed a handkerchief to Hermione, while Ron wiped his face on his sweater again. Dumbledore wore unusual decent colored clothes and a matching hat that looked similar to a fez. He was here to escort her to the airport, where they would meet the doctor.

A few more hugs got exchanged, before the headmaster finally calmed the trio down with a few encouraging words and send the boys back to their classes. And then she left Hogwarts for the last time.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Time to visit home**

Hermione still tried to contain her tears when they met Doctor Cullen at the Airport. Forgetting about her Manners and everything important she sat on a bench sobbing into a tissue while the men greeted each other and had brief talk, that she tuned out completely. A million thoughts chased each other through her head, all of them charged by regrets to leave her friends behind. Only when the headmaster turned to her to say his goodbye as well she returned to the real world for a short moment. Everything else happened in somewhat of a blur, since they already were running late. Doctor Cullen took care of their Luggage and made sure they made it to their seats in time. Only when they were seated and were able to stop rushing through the airport, they both had finally time to adjust to their situation.

Carlisle rested against the soft headrest and took an unnecessary but habitual deep breath. So here they were. He actually brought a human girl home with him and Esme didn't know yet. What the hell was he thinking? If he would have been able to turn paler than he already was he would have. It wasn't helping that she was crying ever since they met this morning and he had no way of making her stop so far. He was used to being stared at, but today he had the feeling he got eyed because people thought he was a horrible parent. He did hear about such experiences before, but it was nothing he ever had to experience in his life or after life. His kids just weren't exactly in an age, where such behaviors were on their agenda. Well now at least one was. God, what if she hated him, because he took her away from the only place she knows?

Caught up in his thoughts of horror, that clearly formed a downwards spiral he lost focus on his primary task and only got pulled back when he noticed a woman, seated across the walkway, handing Hermione a tissue. Damn, he WAS a horrible parent.

Embarrassed he shot the woman a thankful smile and formed the word 'thanks' with his mouth, not wanting to startle the girl, then he turned his attention to her.

…

Hermione felt the heat pool in her cheeks, as a stranger handed her an tissue. She must have annoyed everyone with her sobs. All she wanted was to vanish into thin air, when Doctor Cullen reached out and wiped away a tear with his thumb. With a shameful look she turned to face him. How horrible of her. He was so nice and made all this possible for her and she gave him so much trouble all morning. "I….I am sorry." She mumbled. His face looked a little stressed too, but Hermione came to the conclusion that it was hard to read negative emotions on his face, due to his vampire appearance. But of course she stressed him. She wasn't exactly a display of good behavior.

"I am not sure how to help you." The Doctor admitted. "What is wrong?" He asked a little cautious. Secretly scared that she wants to cancel the whole thing.

Hermione got increasingly angry at herself. Her Dad would have been mad at her for causing such a scene and tell her to behave like a big girl. And there was Doctor Cullen, being all nice instead, asking her what troubled her. Why did she mess up like this? "I am so so sorry" she repeated again and Carlisle noticed people turning around to stare at them more obvious.

His face turned into a grumpy grimace. They should just mind their own business. "Why are you sorry? There is no reason to be. I am sure it is not easy to take in all the sudden changes." He said in a low calming voice.

Hermione blinked away the newly upcoming tears. "You are so nice and I give you so much trouble." She gasped. "I really didn't mean to make you angry!"

Carlisle pulled the girl into a soft hug. "You don't make me angry" He tried to calm her. It's the people that try to catch our private business that make me angry"

This caused Hermione to let her eyes explore her surroundings. There indeed were a lot of people shooting them some too interested looks. But something else shocked Hermione much more. The interior! Everything looked so much nicer than what she was used to. "No way" she exclaimed in a harsh whisper. "Is this first class?" She asked staring at the Doctor with wide eyes.

He chuckled at the evidence how unaware the child was of the world around her. He hoped to make her travel a pleasant memory, although it didn't go as planned so far.

Hermione covered her face with her Hands. "This must have been so expensive!" She complained "I would have been fine with economy." She didn't want to come off spoiled or unthankful and were at a loss how to react to this discovery.

The Doctor laughed again at her. "Don't worry. You will notice money isn't exactly a problem, when one has as much….time….as we do." He gave her a little wink. She got what he tried to say. "Besides" he continued "I work at the hospital, it's not like we exactly have to save the pennies."

Hermione frowned a little. "My Parents were dentists." She stated, containing the sadness about their loss better every time she spoke about them now. She wasn't really sure why she said that or where she wanted to go from there but she somehow considered this information fitting the situation. Hermione expected some weird silence following her statement instead the Doctor sighted at her and patted her head. Confused she looked at him.

"So do you want to tell me now, why you were crying?" He asked in a friendly tone.

Hermione sat back and thought for a moment. She wasn't even sure WHY she was crying to be honest. It was just everything. Leaving Hogwarts, saying bye to everyone especially Ron and Harry. What she was not feeling the last few days just hit her full force now. Oh how should she put those feelings into words? She sat back "I…" a deep breath "I think I just now realized that I really won't see my friends again and will never return to school…" she was a lot calmer now.

The Doctor hooked a finger under her chin and tilted her head up, she couldn't help but stare into his black eyes, even though she would have preferred to look away. "Look Hermione, if you don't want this then you always can tell me and we make sure you can go back." He paused and released her. "But you should give it a chance. I am sure you will find happiness with us. At least wait until you got to know everyone, alright?"

Hermione let that wander through her head for a while and then smiled content. This, she found, actually sounded like a nice plan. With the new peace, that filled her she couldn't stop a yawn escaping her.

"Why don't you rest for a bit?" Doctor Cullen advised. It will be a while. I can wake you later, if you wish."

She smiled and snuggled up in her seat. "Thank you Doctor Cullen." She said with a smile on her lips.

"Carlisle!" he corrected her and watched her drifting off to sleep.

…

Hermione woke an hour later to someone talking. Through her sleep clouded eyes she saw Doctor Cullen chatting with the lady across, that handed her an tissue earlier. If he noticed that she woke up he didn't show it, so she decided to stretch and get rid off the remaining sleepiness. "Good morning sweety" The strange lady called out to her. Hermione was about to stutter some confused reply, thankfully Carlisle was faster. "Welcome back among the living" He smiled, hoping she would get the joke and she did. With a giggle she sat up. "This is Miss Delaney" he introduced the stranger "We just talked about the food they serve here. Do you want anything, it's not really to my taste but maybe for you…." Again a giggle from the girl. The Doctor understood to make subtle fun of his situation, she had to admit.

Hermione shook her head. Not that she wasn't hungry but she already felt bad for the expensive first class ticket he got for her, she didn't want to ask for anything extra and wasn't sure if the food is included or not. "No thank you, I don't think eating and traveling goes well together for me" she improvised.

"As you wish, but you have to eat something once we get home. I doubt you had much for breakfast" he tried to sound strict, but that was hard with this angelic voice he had. Now for the first time the witch really had a chance to think about this. She always did read about Vampires as cruel creatures of the night. Never did she really pay attention to the little side note that they are actually beautiful. While people stared at them earlier for her drama, they now stared at them with some other focus. She noticed people whispering about them or rather him. The awareness of this attention made her go tense. She leaned to Doctor Cullen's side and whispered herself. "Doctor Cullen…..they all stare at you." She stated the obvious with some uncomfortable feeling.

He looked at some people that were staring at them and gifted them with a charming smile. "Don't worry I hear every word they are saying, it will get a little better once we are in Forks, where people know my family." He wasn't sure what else to tell the girl, it never really would vanish completely….the staring. It just was part of being a vampire. He had to solve another issue with the girl though. "Hermione, we need to talk about this Doctor Cullen thing."

Blankly she blinked at him. What was wrong with it?

He let out a sigh "Please, you can call me whatever you want and whatever you feel comfortable with, but I would feel a lot better if you would not address me with fully title and last name. How about we settle for Carlisle for now?" he didn't want to push her or anything alike, and his children often called him Carlisle instead of dad as well so she could decide herself what to go for, but something a little more private than Doctor Cullen hat to do.

Hermione blushed again, not the reaction he aimed for. "I….Yeah, you are right, I just didn't really got to the point where I feel that we are interacting in a non-professional way." She admitted a little guilty.

He leaned back. "That's okay. But please try to adjust to that. I wouldn't like being called Doctor in my home."

Hermione nodded dedicated, she would be able to do as much for him. She decided it was time to behave like the well educated girl she was, and make him not regret his decision. She was just about to pull a book out of her smaller bag, when she realized it would be better to get to know where they were heading. Always stay informed her grandma used to say.

"So how is it where we are going…..living, I mean?" She asked and didn't even have to fake curiosity. This actually was as good as reading, she would get to know new things after all.

His face lightened up at her question. It felt good to see her eyes sparkle with interest, this was so much better than the tears she displayed earlier. "Forks." He said happily. "It's a really small town. You will be glad that you don't have to visit the local high school, like the others do. Everyone knows everyone. But I think you will like it." A smirk formed on his face. "I already got told you are a little bookworm, and Forks has the perfect weather for reading. It rarely has sunny days and a lot of rain."

Hermione actually liked that thought. She didn't know what was up with people hating rain so much. There wasn't anything better than a rainy morning with a good book and a cup of tea.

The man continued "our house is a little outside town, surrounded by the woods. So I have to admit you wont have an easy trip to the town, but someone always should be home to give you a ride if needed."

She didn't think about this yet either and suddenly her nervousness reached a whole new level. "Can you tell me a little about your family?" She asked, her face white as snow.

"OUR Family" Carlisle introduced the topic "is not as scary as your face tells me you think they are." He chuckled. "No reason to be nervous. The kids are out on vacation this week, so you only will meet my wife for now and I am sure you will get along well. Her name is Esme."

Esme huh? Hermione never heard such an unusual name before, it sounded nice. A relieved breath escaped her lips. It was really a calming thought that she wouldn't have to meet everyone at once.

"and your children?" She asked honestly curious now, that she knew she didn't have to meet them any time soon.

Carlisle felt her nervousness and reservation, he really hoped she would warm up once they were home. But he couldn't expect that after only a few conversations. It took forever until jasper warmed up to them too, thanks to Alice he did by now. Hopefully Hermione would find someone among the family who would help her with this complicated task as well.

"Well. Let's go by the order they joined us, shall we?" he asked playful and she gave a nod, as if waiting for him to tell her the end of a book she wasn't able to finish. He had to smile at the thought "There is Edward. He is my youngest son but the first who joined my family. He reads a lot too, so you have common ground there, and he plays the piano. Also he recently found his better half, Bella." Hermione's face lighted up at the mentioning of another book lover.

"Then there is Rosalie. Our oldest daughter. She can be a little complicated to deal with, her intentions are sometimes hard to understand for people who don't know her, but I have a feeling you two will understand each other just fine."

Hermione counted with his explanations in her head. One son and one daughter so far. Okay this sounded nice.

"next would be Emmet. Our oldest and the most unpredictable of the pack." Carlisle let out a annoyed sigh. "He's a real big brother type, so be careful. He wants to gets all the crazy experiences and doesn't say no to any adventure. But since he is with Rosalie, they actually balance out each other well. Rose, sometimes is a little too careful."

Hermione got confused. Did he say he is with Rosalie as in couple? She held back to ask.

"then there are Alice and Jasper, who joined us together. Alice is always in high spirits, but a real caregiver. She will always have your back once you got to know each other. And her other half Jasper is a really calm character. He also reads a lot." He wasn't sure how to tell much about him without saying anything that could peak the interest of people that listened in on their talk. So he left it at that.

Hermione turned more confused. He said it again. She just had to ask. "What do you mean Other half?" She asked a little grossed out. "As in romantic couple?" She was shocked, what had she gotten herself into.

Carlisle didn't actually think about the fact that it would confuse her, but of course it would. It's not really the typical human image of a family. How did he explain this in a way she could understand without saying too much?

"You have to take in mind…how long we…uhm live together." He tried to approach the topic from this corner. "and how old they were when they joined our family." He saw that she was actually thinking about it. He already knew that he would like that the most about her, she always thought before jumping to conclusions and tried to react reasonable. The Healer at St. Mungo's wasn't wrong when she told him that Hermione was a real smart head.

"I see….I guess I have to see that myself to understand it" was the timid answer she gave and Carlisle was actually proud of her.

He felt how things already got easier with her, less scripted, if this made any sense. "So it's my turn again isn't it?" He asked a little daring and the witch's face showed understanding.

"Oh we continue our game from the hospital? Fine!" she taunted him. "Ask away, then"

Time to get to know her personality a little better. "What was your favorite subject before u went to Hogwarts?" He had to keep the questions in a way that wouldn't give away to much…supernatural. He felt people still tuning in on their conversation now and then.

Hermione tried to remember her elementary school time for a moment. "History and English, I think" Which was easy said, since History class only consisted of cool topics back then like local fables. "though the excitement for History got lost when I changed school" she grimaced remembering Professor Binns. "That's to blame on the teacher I fear" She didn't want it to sound like an excuse, but she was somewhat convinced that she would have enjoyed the History classes if it would have been taught differently. "You got another question, if we keep it fair." She granted sheepishly

This wasn't too bad of a choice, Carlisle thought. It's not the easy slacker classes and it's not too high ambitious to be faked out of misplaced ambition. He expected all his children to bring home good grades, she would not be an exception just because she only goes through school once. He had another question burning to be asked, but that was none for this environment so he settled for something else "Do you wanted siblings, when you were younger?" not a question without intention.

The witch was rather surprised by the question. This wasn't something you got asked every day. But she knew the answer without thinking. "No." she admitted very sure. "I always enjoyed being alone with my parents. It's not that I was scared of sharing my things or their attention. I just never was one of the children that went asking for a sibling. It never occurred to me that this was possible back then and when I was older it just felt right as it was." She actually was thinking about this topic in the past, when she met Ron's family for the first time, so she didn't have to hesitate with that answer, but she knew where Doc…..Carlisle was coming from. "But it's not like I hate the idea of siblings." She added to answer his unspoken question.

He nodded happily. "Smart girl, I see." He commented. He actually got a little scared that she would have issues fitting in with his vampiric children since they all were rather fast thinkers, but she proved him wrong in not even a day. Alice was right this would be great.

…

It didn't take them long to reach the airport after this and things were a lot more relaxed than when they started this morning. Carlisle got all their things on a little carriage and met Hermione at one of the waiting areas. "I hope you don't mind, usually Emmett would have picked us up, but since they are already gone for vacation and Esme wanted to prepare the house for our arrival, we have to take a cab." He knew this trip would take way longer than necessary and was a little annoyed by it. If he could drive himself they would make it in half the time. Hermione just nodded "I didn't expect anything else anyway." She said. She seemed a lot happier and this made even the extra travel time feel okay for him.

They entered one of the waiting cars and the driver was one of the less talkative ones, which Carlisle was thankful for. Hermione asked if it was fine if she would read a little, during their drive, so she was occupied until they were about 10 minutes away from Forks.

Suddenly he turned a little worried, her breathing got faster and louder, not noticeable for any human but he could hear it clearly. She slammed her book shut and squirmed in her seat. Carlisle looked at her face, she was even paler than earlier in the airplane. "What's wrong?" he asked a little panic in his voice.

He watched as she opened the window a little bit and then spoke without facing him "I think not eating _and_ reading during the ride was not the wisest of combinations." She mumbled.

A lopsided smirk spread on Carlisle face, happy that it wasn't anything serious. He could deal with a little travel sickness and thankfully thought ahead.

"Can we take a little stop?" He asked the driver, who already eyes the sick girl suspiciously, worried about his backseats. He nodded in eager agreement and stopped the car on the road's side.

Carlisle opened his Seatbelt and then hers. "Come on lets take some breaths of fresh air and stand for a moment. " She climbed out of the car and stood on wobblily knees. Carlisle fished a small bottle of water out of his bag before he left the car and joined her. He put a hand on her forehead, knowing that it would create a cooling sensation for her, and handed her the water. "Take small sips."

She took the bottle from him, while wondering about the thing with his cold hands. She already noticed in the hospital but didn't really take it as characteristic for him, now she came to consider it some usual thing for him. Did she read about vampires being cold? If so, she couldn't remember.

As she failed miserably at opening the bottle, she handed it back. Meanwhile the driver left the car as well to smoke a cigarette, a few steps away.

Carlisle opened the bottle with a fast 'click' and handed it back to her, annoyed at himself that he didn't think of this before.

She only took one sip, first feeling better when she felt the cool liquid running down her throat. So she felt safe to go for more, but when the first cool gulps reached her stomach it got all the way worse. The little clouds of smoke that attacked her nose didn't help either. Suddenly she felt really ill and she knew she couldn't stop the unavoidable.

Carlisle saw it too. The mixture of horror and displeasure on her face, was a picture he knew all to well from work. Usually he would hand his patients a little metal bowl, but in this case all he could doo was step out the way and quickly hold her hair back as she threw up her breakfast.

The driver, clearly not in this kind of situation for the first time, just opened the driver's seat door and grabbed a pack of paper towels and handed it to, what he assumed was the girls father with an annoyed grunt.

He gave him a thankful smile, and pulled a few pieces out, before handing them to her.

Hermione's cheeks burned with an intense feeling of shame. "I am sorry!" She said "This never happened to me before!" she really did mess up all way.

Again the vampire put one of his cool hands in her neck. "Don't worry, nothing I didn't see before…..hospital remember?"

Hermione would have lied if she said this didn't make her feel better. It clearly lowered the level of embarrassment she felt.

When they continued the rest of their way home Hermione focused on staring out of the window into the far distance to not make anything worse. She couldn't help but notice the unusual amount of green. She instantly felt sheltered beneath the trees and the closer they got to their destiny the greener it got.

….

 _(Cullen's home)_

Esme returned from her own hunting trip this morning, to find her children already gone and a note laying on her kitchen counter.

" _Mom,_

 _We are on our way. Bella is worried, about Charlie being alone. Maybe you can bring him something to eat while we are gone, else he will only live off of take out.  
Also you want to fill the kitchen with human food, you will need it. Have some Camomile tea ready, for an upset stomach when Carlisle gets home at 9:48pm.  
I put a few needed things for our newest addition in my room. She will find them._

 _We will call when we reached our first stay in Italy._

 _Alice._ "

So the agenda for Esme during the day was to do some grocery shopping, finish a spicy Tuna casserole for Charlie. The man really was so helpless without Bella, or her. It was adorable in its own way.

Then she went to put fresh covers on Alice and Jaspers bed, but noticed that Alice already took care of that. She also saw the little gift basket on the bed and fought her curiosity to read the note.

The rest of the day she spend staring at Alice note for her and trying to call her to figure out what exactly she meant by 'newest addition'. She knew what it meant literally, but she didn't really want to get too excited in case she was wrong.

At exactly 9:40pm she brew the tea, as Alice advised in her massage. And wondered what this was about.

Exactly 8 minutes later, she heard a car in their drive way, a few words exchanged and much to her surprise she noticed a timid, very young, female voice apologizing, before the car left again. Then a key got put into the door and the familiar scratching noise that signaled the key's turning in the lock.

She walked to the door, filled with excitement, that she failed to hold back and nervousness. The door opened and the first thing she saw was her husband and double as much bags as he left with. He pushed them all inside and freed the way, to reveal a beautiful, little girl. Not beautiful in the fashion meaning way. But to Esme she was the most beautiful being, with all her humanly imperfections. A mess of untamable hair on a much too small head. She only reached up to Carlisle's Chest. Her hands trembled nervously, her face was pale but her cheeks and forehead were shining red. She looked a little sick, which just made her look more alive. Big brown eyes, didn't know if to look at her or somewhere else and as she entered their house, she hid behind her husband halfway. Esme was instantly charmed by this girl. And now she only could thank Alice for not taking this moment away from her with spoiling anything.

Her love put a hand on the girls back and pushed her forward gently. She stepped up to them, not letting the girl out of sight with a warm smile on her face. "hello there." She greeted them delightful as her husband put a tender kiss on her cheek. "hello my heart." He greeted her and pulled her in a deep embrace. She couldn't help but close her eyes, enjoying that he was back with her. As they parted again he stepped behind the girl and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Esme, this is Hermione Granger." He introduced her. Esme bend down to her a tiny bit and held a hand out. "Hello Hermione. My name is Esme Cullen. Nice to meet you." The girl was shy, which surprised her a little, she didn't look like the shy type.

Hermione took the offered hand carefully, not failing to notice that she was as cold as Doc…..Carlisle's. "H…Hello. Thank you for letting me be here!"

Esme didn't hesitate to pull the girl into a soft hug. As she let go the child blinked startled at her. But that didn't stop Esme from following though with her task. She laid an arm around the girls shoulders and led her towards the kitchen. Leaving Carlisle behind with all the bags and boxes. "I heard you are not feeling so well." Esme admitted as she led the girl to a seat on the kitchen counter, where the hot tea stood steaming. "I prepared some tea for you, it will help." She smiled and pushed the cup to her as she sat down.

Hermione's mouth formed a surprised but voiceless 'oh'. She let her eyes wander over Esme and then through the kitchen and the open living room, when she ended up at Esme's friendly face again. "How?...How did you?" she stuttered obviously stunned by this warm greeting.

Carlisle suddenly sat next to her, she didn't notice that he followed them. He looked at his wife with a proud smile. "Alice?" he asked, but it didn't sound like an actual question. His wife nodded.

Hermione looked confused from her tea to Carlisle and then to Esme. She felt like she was missing information again. Carlisle smiled at her. "You did read a little about our kind, didn't you?" he asked Hermione. He figured out by know that she responded to questions better than to bare facts. He waited until the girl nodded and then shot a meaningful look to Esme, who was confused if she was supposed to hide her vampiric nature or not. Who was this girl? Did she know about them already? Carlisle would have a lot to explain!

He continued "Then you maybe already know that some of us have special abilities." He waited for a response from the girl.

She shook her head slowly. "Actually, I hear that for the first time." She admitted a little grumpy. Her lack of knowledge annoyed her.

Esme took over, picking up where the talk was heading. "Some of us, that already had some kind of talent in their human life, gain a similar ability after their change." She explained.

Hermione wasn't really sure why they told her that now until Carlisle connected the dots for her. "Our daughter Alice, has the ability to have some insight on future events." He kept explaining. "She probably already saw your little adventure on the way here, and informed Esme." The last part was as much a question for the woman than it was a statement for Hermione.

Esme nodded happily. And Hermione was thinking about the possibilities of super powers as she sipped her tea.

"Finish your tea. I will take care of our luggage and then you should sleep so we don't mess up your sleeping pattern." Carlisle said stricter than he ever was before, but still with this warm friendly smile. "You have all the time in the world to talk and get to know everything tomorrow."

Esme shot Carlisle a look that yelled 'you gotta explain that!' but he could feel that she was positively surprised. She was all motherly when she spoke to Hermione. "I have Alice room set up for you for now." She explained to her and as soon as she caught a hint of newly rising embarrassment in the child's face she added "She offered it, since she already saw you in her visions. So no worries."

This made Hermione feel a lot better. She didn't like being an inconvenience. She should have been full of energy with all the Adrenalin filling her and the nap she had before, but as the sweet tea warmed her from the inside she couldn't help but feeling heavy with sleep. She thought this situation would have been a lot more awkward and uncomfortable, but Esme made her feel very safe and at home instantly. So she didn't protest when the woman showed her to her sleeping place for the night. This actually felt a lot nicer than she had anticipated.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 **AN:** _So after the weekend again a longer chapter. I have to admit I had some trouble writing this chapter. I never know when I am too shallow or too detailed when it comes to such private conversations, but I hope you enjoy reading this_

 _Since I am a victim to travel sickness myself, I thought this would be a nice mishap to place here and a good hook up for Esme._

 _And even though I am no Edward fan at all, I have a feeling Edward and Hermione will get along pretty fine. And I prefer to go with such impress rather than my personal preferences on characters._


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Time to settle down**

Hermione let out a long yawn as she entered the room Esme showed her to. It was a beautiful room even for Hermione's taste. Everything was kept in a noble vintage style. It looked like an upper class version of the prefect room at Hogwarts she got to catch a glimpse of before. The Walls were covered with dark grey wood paneling. They had a relief pattern and in the center of each was a painting of mountains, that stretched through the whole room. Hermione couldn't tell if the floor was stone or wood it seemed like one surface without any gaps in it. It had a bronze scratchy color. As if it was centuries old and things got moved a lot over it. There was a black carpet and on top of it a big, soft double sized bed in a lighter bronze tone than the floor. A lot of pillows and blankets in creamy colors on it and at the end was a day blanket in the same color as the wall panels. On the right side of the room was a giant window and a few pillows on the ground to sit an watch out of it. A stack of old suitcases served as little make-shift table between the pillows. On each side of the bed was a lamp hanging on the wall and beneath them were little bronze cubes as night stands. Hermione walked into the room turning around herself. The wall with the door she entered through, served as enormous bookshelf and on the left wall she discovered two more doors. She assumed one of them led to a bathroom.

She couldn't force herself to close her mouth again. This whole room looked more magical than anything she ever saw and she was a god damn witch.

She went to sit on the bed but stopped when she saw a little gift wrapped basket on it. She took the note that was pinned on it and opened it.

…

" _Hello new Sister,_

 _I am sure you already got told that I saw your arrival coming I also saw that you sleep in my bedroom until you got your own ready. Don't worry! I am more than happy to have you stay here._

 _I made sure you have everything you might need. There are things like a new toothbrush, soaps and a few Pajamas in the basket. Also feel free to borrow some of my things, if you need._

 _On the left night stand are a few books of Jaspers, he thought you might would enjoy reading._

 _Can't wait to meet you._

 _Alice"_

…

Hermione felt a new blush spread over her face. This was awful nice but it sort of made her feel like a homeless that got taken in. It wasn't like she hadn't her own bathroom things and clothes. But she had to admit they all smelled a little…well old. Being in the dusty trunk and Hogwarts was full of dust and it just had this certain smell that no one could deny….okay maybe this wasn't so bad after all.

She opened the basket curiously. There indeed was a nice violet toothbrush, she could tell it was a good one because it was one of those her parents would have recommended to their patients. There were really sweet smelling liquid soaps. Sweet wasn't her choice but she didn't dislike it either. And 2 sets of PJs and a few soft socks. Such you would wear instead of slippers at home.

She smiled contently. This turned better and better. She didn't feel as bad anymore. She grabbed one of the PJs, one pair of socks and the bathroom stuff and walked over to the two mysterious doors. She had to pick one and went for the left one.

Wrong choice! Instead of a bathroom she faced a scary big dressing room. She blinked a few times trying to wrap her head around the amount of clothing and then closed the door again carefully, as if this would make the whole moment disappear.

She went for the other door and got to her desired destiny. A nice equally beautiful bathroom invited her. She wanted to enjoy this nice shower and everything but she was horrible tired so she sped through everything she had to do and got ready for bed.

When she came out of the bathroom, she saw Esme placing a glass of water on one of the bedside tables. She turned around and smiled at Hermione.

"Ready to sleep ,dear? She asked in a calm voice, that coaxed another yawn out of Hermione. "Surely looks like it!" She chuckled.

Hermione walked over to her and tried to return her friendly smile. She felt as if she failed on it. She looked at the glass of water nervously, surprised how thoughtful this little act of care was. "thank you…for all of this." She mumbled.

Again Esme had clearly no problem of too much private interaction and pulled Hermione in a startling hug. "No need to thank me so much, I am glad you are here." She whispered in Hermione's hair. Before the young witch could react, Esme had her picked up, turned around and settled on the big bed.

Hermione's eyes grew wide. Esme was concerned by her expression. "Sorry dear. I didn't mean to scare you" It hurt Hermione as if there was a knot turning in her stomach, to hear the woman that was nothing but nice to her sound so hurt. "No no." The girl tried to defuse the situation. "I knew you are fast I just never actually saw it before." She wasn't sure if this explanation helped or made things worse. If it did lesser, then Esme didn't show it, because she put her motherly smile back on and tucked Hermione in.

"it's okay I know you need to get used to us." Esme said and even though she was still smiling, her eyes looked really sad when she spoke.

Hermione sighted she didn't want to be complicated for those nice people. "And you have to get used to me too I guess." Was the best she could manage. She was thinking. Harry always cheered Ron up when he was a pessimist…..what would he say? She let her head sink deeper into the soft pillows. "I am sure this won't be as hard as it seems right now." She offered and Esme's face lit up.

"Carlisle already said that you are a bright one." She said, a hint of pride swinging with her voice. She stroke softly over Hermione's cheek. "Sleep well, we can talk tomorrow. If you need anything I will be downstairs all night long."

Hermione didn't even notice that Esme was gone, until she turned off the lights and closed the bedroom door a little bit. She had to smile into the pillow. Her mom used to do this, leaving the door open a tiny bit. This small gesture made her feel warm and happy, she took in the foreign scent from the sheets and the room. A mix of something spicy and something sweet. And while wondering how things would be from now on she drifted off to sleep.

…

Downstairs, Carlisle waited for his wife to come back to him as he finished putting away the last things from their travel. He wasn't feeling exhausted literally but somehow he felt as if a shower and a few hours of doing nothing specific was in order.

But first he had to talk with Esme. As she came into view she was laughing to herself softly and he wondered why. Maybe he should have listened when she went to say good night to Hermione.

She walked over to him, placed her arms around his neck and placed her perfect lips on his in a deep, passionate kiss. As she finally let go again, Carlisle was sure he would have been breathless, if he would have been in need of air at all. "Now, welcome home." She smirked and dropped gracefully on the couch. "You want to tell me now what all this is about?"

Carlisle felt like a schoolboy that got caught breaking the rules. How did she do this to him? He forgot how he wanted to start this talk.

Esme took his silence as a sign that she had to lead on the conversation. "Since Alice already dropped the words 'newest addition' I assume she stays with us?" She tried to pull any reply from him.

He nodded. "Yes….If you and the kids agree with it that is…and if she agrees with it." He saw Esme's hesitating look and tried to go more into detail "I mean we never lived with a human for longer than a weekend…and even then, Bella is a lot older and more independent and Hermione have to see if she actually is fine with a house full of our kind." He stated a little uncomfortable. Up until now he was sure Esme would love the idea, but her face gave no emotion away. God what would he give right now to have Edward or Jasper here.

"How does she know about us?" Esme asked in a neutral voice.

Carlisle felt the need to loosen his collar and opened the top button as he sat down as well. He rarely saw his Love being that commanding. Was this a mistake after all and Alice was wrong? "She is a witch." He said plainly.

Esme's lips turned into a thin line. "I thought so." She was thinking. Or was she waiting for him to go on?

Unsure Carlisle continued. "I met her a few times when I was working at the Hospital there and after a while learned that her parents passed away not long ago and she had the wish to visit a school in America to start over." He explained. "And when I learned that all that was missing to her luck was a family, I felt as if I had to offer her the same chance we offered all our kids." He didn't dare to look at her right now. "We agreed on her staying here until she met everyone and then she should decide if she wants this or not and I thought if I give you the same deal then it's a fair chance for everyone." He still stared at the ground. "The school she will be attending is a school for wizards and witches and a boarding school, so…."

He got interrupted when two slender arms wrapped around him and a kiss was pressed on his forehead. Esme seated herself on his lap. Confused he looked up and met her soft, golden eyes.

"You are the kindest man, I've ever had the luck to meet" She said, not breaking their eye contact. "I love you and you did the only right thing, there was to do."

A stone dropped off his heart as she spoke. He was so scared that she disliked the whole idea. He pulled her closer.

Alice was right, it would be fine.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Time for personal space**

After a nice shower Carlisle spend a while in his study. There was some work piled that his colleagues from the hospital sent over while he was gone. Mostly cases that weren't that urgent, but where his opinion was requested. So he decided to ignore it for now. Instead he took one of the books he got during his first visit in London and wanted to read more about Hogwarts, there had to be something about it or maybe about the other school Hermione would be attending. He wanted to know what was going on there. He knew exactly well what his other children learned in school…..well they did not really learn anymore but still. In Hermione's case everything was new to him. A ironic smile appeared on his face. This must be how normal parents felt. Not knowing what their nearly teenage children learn at school, what fashion was a thing in their social environment or what hobbies they had. He felt hopelessly clueless for the first time in his parent-life.

He spend quite some time with a ton of books and his frustration grew as he barely found any relevant information. Close to sunrise a few noises from the kitchen caught his attention and he decided to give up on his research mission for now.

As he joined Esme in the kitchen he found the source of the noise. She was cooking…..a lot! There was one Casserole in the oven, one unbaked pizza on the counter and she was working on pancakes at the same time. Confused he approached the workspace in human pace "Esme?" he asked cautious, not sure if she was too distracted to notice hi presence. As she looked up with shining eyes and humming one of the hits she liked from the 50s, he continued "What are you doing?" He gestured with his arms, framing all the food. Esme smiled sweetly and danced around to lift one finished pancake out of the pan and pour a new one in. She placed the finished ones under a Food-Cap to keep them warm.

"I am preparing some more food for Charlie, he can simply freeze and heat up later and…." She turned around again to clean something up while waiting for the next pancake to finish "breakfast for Hermione" Hummin again.

Carlisle smiled happily. It has been a while since he last saw his wife that content. He sat down on one of the bar stools at the kitchen counter and enjoyed to simply watch her work for a while, listening to her humming, that perfectly matched the song he remembered.

When she was finished and started cleaning up, birds were chirping outside despite a few raindrops knocking on their windows. "So." Esme started and he could already hear that she had a request for him. "This spare room we kept for Bella." She hinted. He knew what she wanted he was thinking about it too. "It will still be a few years until Bella actually joins us and maybe she and Edward want to move somewhere on their own for a while then." She was absolutely right, he thought. That was pretty much the same thinking path he went down as well, earlier.

He interrupted her "I know. I agree with you. First I thought of Jaspers study, he could use mine. But that wouldn't be fair." He frowned a little. "if Bella decides to join us sooner rather than later we have to move anyway and the house in Alaska is bigger. And if she just decides to live here, they surely wouldn't mind sharing Edwards room."

Esme's smile turned bigger and brighter with each word. "So that means we are going to do some interior design planning today"

Carlisle held his hands up in defense. "Surely a good way to get to know each other….without me around" No way he would meddle with Esme's reign of the interior decorations.

Esme was about to try and convince him to join them, but the sound of someone moving around distracted them. Esme clapped her hands soundlessly. "She's awake" she exclaimed excited.

….

Hermione woke up early. Still in her Hogwarts routine and it felt really strange to her, that she didn't have to get up and get ready to join the great hall for breakfast with her friends. She looked around the beautiful, unfamiliar room, took in the still strange scent. What now?

She didn't feel as if she had the right to walk around here on her own. And she didn't know what her vampiric caretakers were doing usually around this time, she didn't want to interrupt or annoy them.

She sat up in her bed, flung the blankets away and sat cross-legged on the bed. Then she took the little stack of books from the night stand. It were 4 titles. She wondered what they considered interesting for her. There was "A short story of everything" and "The things nobody knows". Okay those were titles that nearly anyone would read if nothing else was around. "The book thief" Was something that peaked her interest so she laid it aside. And there was the last title "Dracula" Hermione blinked. Seriously? Dracula? She giggled. This clearly was a nice attempt of showing her that vampires too have some sense of humor.

She put all books back except of the Book thief. She would read that one. The introduction already sounded super interesting. She leaned back and let herself get lost in the book for a little while. She was already a few good pages in when a knock on the door pulled her out of this new world.

"good morning." Carlisle greeted her from the door. Hermione smiled happily and wasn't sure why she reacted that way, she still barely knew the man. "Good Morning" She greeted back and closed her book, she would remember the page she was on.

"If you care to get up, there is some breakfast ready for you." He hinted and she felt a little bad. She didn't want to come off lazy!

She jumped out of bed and checked the time. It was only 7:38 am, so it wasn't that late yet. "Yes! I am sorry, I just didn't want to wander around on my own" she explained. Better share the truth rather than give a wrong impression.

Carlisle face took over a rather serious expression as he walked over and sat on the bed. He padded next to himself, asking her to join him. "This is your home now, Hermione. You need to understand that."

She let her head hang low. She felt as if she messed up again and she really didn't want to.

"You can walk around whenever and wherever you want. Understood?" He asked now less serious and with a hint of joke in his voice. She nodded uncertain.

"Maybe it's our fault, we actually should discuss a few house rules so you know the does and don'ts around here." He sighted.

This was a great idea. Hermione liked rules they made things easier. "This would be very helpfully, to be honest" she admitted, knowing perfectly well that she was probably the only 12 year old that wanted rules.

Carlisle laughed at that. This girl was really interesting. This certainly wasn't the reaction he expected.

A protesting noise from Hermione's belly ended the conversation.

"Seems like it's time for breakfast!" Carlisle stated as he jumped up and pulled the girl with him. When this made her giggle, he felt so much stratification. This child was entirely to shy and quiet around them. This needed to change. Maybe with edward around things would get a little clearer.

"Okay okay! Breakfast. I just rush through the bathroom and then I am down." Hermione offered while trying to stop her face from all the smiling.

….

When Hermione arrived in the kitchen she was punched in the face by the wonderful smell of pancakes. Esme wished her a good morning with a hug and a kiss on her head. Hermione would have lied if she said that she was comfortable with this affection, from a woman she barely knew. But it also felt somehow nice and she didn't want to fight it off.

When she had the first view bites of her breakfast she was delighted. They tasted heavenly good. Hermione didn't know where Carlisle went but Esme sat next to her reading the newspaper while Hermione ate.

"So…you don't eat food at all?" Hermione asked carefully. She actually knew they didn't. She already did read about that, but she wanted something to start off a conversation.

Esme shook her head. "No dear. We can but it just gives us nothing"

Hermione chewed. "Well for someone who doesn't eat you cook really great. Even for someone who does eat this would be awesome" She praised.

Esme chuckled. She knew she was good. She had every cooking show and book memorized that was available since the 70s. "What did you eat when you were at school?" She was curious how the kids previous life was.

Hermione was thinking for a moment. "This is actually hard to explain." She couldn't really put into words how the great hall was. "Houseelfes cook the food at Hogwarts and they make a lot of it, since we are…we were….there are a great amount of students and teachers and staff." She took another bite. "So there is nearly every thing for breakfast one can imagine, no need to select."

Esme couldn't really imagine that and Hermione knew, but there was just no way of describing the meals at Hogwarts, one would have to see it.

"And at home?" She asked, hoping this wouldn't hurt the girl.

Hermione was actually thankful that she could talk about her home life. She noticed it got easier every time she thought or spoke about her parents. "Very traditional. Toast, Egg and fruits usually." Boring, perfectly boring, great breakfast, Hermione thought.

Esme took a mental note to have such things ready for her in the future. "How did you sleep? I know Alice room is not really the ordinary. She has a thing for fashion in all its forms.""

Hermione could hear the affection the woman held for this mysterious Alice, when she spoke about her. This was nice. If she would get as included? Probably not, since she will be in boarding school. A little sadness mixed into her cheerful morning mood. "I slept great. That was the softest bed I ever slept in. Hogwarts isn't exactly known for that."

"Oh" Esme let out and caused a confused stare from Hermione. "I hope then you won't mind sleeping in a different bed soon." Still a confused look and Esme had to remind her to keep eating.

"We have a spare room, that is supposed to be yours. And I thought it would be nice if we go and get it filled together. I don't know what you like and it would be a great thing to do to get to know each other better, right?" Esme told her and got increasingly excited.

Hermione's mouth stood open, and Esme feared that food would drop out. "Hermione?" She asked worried.

Shocked Hermione closed her mouth and swelled her food was too fast. "No no no no!" she whined.

"What's wrong dear?" Esme was at a loss, what was wrong? Did she say something wrong?

"You cant spend so much money on me again!" Hermione protested.

Esme's worried expression turned into a softer, warmer version. "Oh dear. Of course we can! You are part of our family and our responsibility now." She cupped Hermione's face in one hand. "And as you already saw, money is not an issue of this family."

Hermione tried to shake her head but was blocked by Esme's cold hand. "But what if this doesn't work out, then u have a room full of expensive things."

The vampires face turned more serious. "Nonsense. This will work out, else Alice would have said something! And you need a place for yourself!" her voice sounded like she was giving an order now. "Don't be silly. This will be fun!"

Hermione gave up. What was it with this family and throwing money around?

When Hermione was done eating, she stood up to clean her dishes and Esme went to help her, humming a nice melody she never heard before.

After that Hermione got ready for a day of shopping. She was truly not feeling comfortable with this, but she also couldn't deny that she was equally excited to create a whole new room for herself.

…

She put on a pair of jeans and a pink sweater. She also picked a pair of comfortable shoes since she expected a lot of walking for today. She also had her own mission to accomplish. She had no clue where the next access to the wizarding world was around here, so she would use the trip to look for any signs of this. If she wouldn't find anything she had to ask Carlisle to contact Dumbledore for her and find something out. She realized that she was too isolated from her own world to ignore it. She had no way of getting her hands on Potions, books or a way to contact her friends.

She picked on of her favorite bags…..not like she had many but out of the two she had it was her favorite. Threw in her moneybag and noticed satisfied that a pack of chewing gum was already in there. She would pick up a small bottle of water somewhere on the way.

As she walked down the stairs Esme was already waiting for her. She had a devilish smile on her lips. "Are you ready?" She asked and Hermione got infected by her excitement as well. Hermione gave a determined nod. "Read to rumble!" she said and wondered about herself. That was something she would say to Ron and Harry not to adults.

Esme opened a door and let Hermione in before joining. The witch stared into thick darkness and waited for some lights to turn on. She could hear how the vampiric woman switched it on and was sure she did so only for her sake. She probably could see perfectly fine without the lights.

Hermione sucked in her breath when she caught eye on the size of the Garage they were in and more important, the amount of cars in here.

The woman put her hands on Hermione's shoulders as she stood behind her and spoke with some mischief in her voice. "Since the children aren't in town, we have free access to everyone's car. You pick!" Esme chuckled.

"No way!" Hermione turned her head as far as she could to shoot the woman a disturbed look "Those cars are your kid's?" disbelief was all she could express.

Esme put on her most innocent housewife look "Well two of them are mine and Carlise's"

There were just no words in Hermione's world for that. She honestly did not expect to end up in such a rich family. Sure she knew as a doctor Carlisle's family would have money, and she always assumed vampires would have some kind of long term finance management, but this was so beyond anything she imagined.

Hermione looked around, trying to sort out the cars. She pointed on a silver Aston Martin, not that she knew what it was, but it looked shiny and futuristic and made her eyes go bling bling.

Esme picked the fitting key from a board and pushed Hermione through the cars "Ohhh Edward's special occasion car" she cheered. "God things he's not here to know."

This was an awesome side of Esme, that Hermione got to know and this made her worry about her sanity. She hated people who were out for trouble or breaking rules and Esme obviously had a super devilish side to her. But instead of disliking it Hermione suddenly felt like it was very easy to get attached to the woman. While she came off as the perfect mother-figure and housewife before, there was something different about her now. It somehow reminded her of Harry and Ron, when they were trying to figure out the secrets of Hogwarts last year.

As they got into the car and buckled their seat belts the witch couldn't contain a happy laugher herself. "I never was in such an expensive car before!" she exclaimed excited and Esme shot her a wink "I won't go telltale!" she promised.

But Esme just waved it off "No worries, he will find out anyway, but then it will be too late to stop us" As to bring her point across with special effect she let the engine howl. And then they left the garage.

The ride through Fork was calm and Hermione took the chance to watch out of the window and get a imagined map of the town. When they were out on the open road, was when the adventure just started. Slowly Hermione noticed that the landscape went faster and faster around them. When it seemed unusual fast she turned to look at the Speedo. She swallowed. "I…is it safe to go that fast?"

Esme turned her head to the girl and put a hand on hers. "No worries! Vampire reflexes and all. This is the reason why we have those cars, we just love driving them!" She laughed and this time the witch wasn't sure if she still liked evil Esme, she wanted back the kind Esme. Now she felt as if someone forced her on a roller-coaster. She griped on the door handle and hold onto it for dear life.

When the hell trip was over after what felt like an eternity they were in Seattle at a giant market for interior-décor.

While she adored the room she stayed in right now, she wanted something less extravagant for herself. She needed to be able to study, sleep and read in this room after all.

Esme had all important numbers like room height in her head and they got hold of one employee to stay with them and note everything they take as well as give advice. At least in theory. Practically Esme knew exactly what was okay and what not and didn't let the poor boy sell them anything unnecessary. After nearly 4 hours of shopping, Hermione picked lavender wall paint for two walls and white wood paneling for the other two. A fancy bed, that was on top of a dresser and had its own little stairs. Esme told her that the room had a big roof window and the bed could fit right below it. This would be great, she could look at the stars when she fell asleep. She also picked white cupboard and a long dresser. Esme also allowed her, her own TV in the room, and she could put it on the dresser. A modern white desk that went over a corner of the room. And a fake furr carpet along with a violet comfy big chair she could read on for hours. The room already had a light grey wooden floor in it according to Esme.

Hermione's room at her parents home was in the colors of Gryffindor, but she didn't want that now. She wouldn't know what house she would get sorted in in Ilvermorny and getting reminded of Gryffindor was a little painful. So she went for completely different coloring, and she thought that the soft lavender and white was a calming atmosphere to stay in. Esme picked out a few Décor items that just suited the furniture perfectly and even though she would have never admitted it to anyone, Hermione always wanted a lot of light strings in her room.

When they were done Esme ordered the employee to have send everything to them until Friday, and the poor boy was completely overwhelmed, while his coworkers obviously were jealous for the huge deal he got.

They went to eat at a fast food place afterwards, well Hermione was eating Esme just sat with her and pulled all attention of strangers to them. But it was still nice.

Since they had a long drive ahead, Esme wanted to use their Seattle trip for more than just getting the room equipped. They went through a few clothing stores, and the woman got Hermione at least 8 new sets of outfits. Which wasn't much in Esme's eyes but way too much for Hermione's. They ended the day with a visit in the cinema. There was a movie about a young boy, that met a wizard and became his unwilling scholar. Hermione found the movie incredible funny, while it was supposed to be an action-fantasy movie.

When they left the place and got back to the car, Hermione was tired, but happy deep down to her core. She was laughing a lot that day and didn't waste a single thought to doubts or sad memories. Esme was obviously happy with the end result of the day.

When they hit the road she wanted to have a little talk with the girl, before she would fall asleep. She could see it wouldn't take long until she was in dreamland.

"So is this how it works with magic? Like in the movie? You have a teacher and some magic rings and then you just have to imagine what you want to do?" she asked curiously

Hermione laughed and rolled her eyes in played annoyance. "Not at all. No magic rings required. We have wands. Everyone has a personal wand, which certain attributes. Mine for example is made of Vine Wood and has a core of dragon heartstring." She smiled proudly. "Vine means it's very sensitive for it's owners presence and according to the crafter, is meant for people with hidden character depth. And dragon-heart means it can create very powerful, flamboyant spells and it's owner learns fast." She would never forget the explanation Ollivander gave her, when she got her wand. For the first time it made her feel, like she can be the main character of her own story, not only a side figure.

Esme listened very interested. She had no idea of any of those magic things but she really wanted to know everything, especially when it was the world of one of her children. And just then she realized herself, how easy it was for her to get attached to the girl.

"And you don't just imagine what you want to do and it happens." Hermione continued to explain. "For each spell there is a spell you need to know, and a certain pattern you have to draw with you wand. Sometimes you also need special tools or equipment for more complicated spells." A yawn. "And that's only for charms. There is a lot more to magic than just wand waving. There is potions, Herbology is very attached to it as well. Then there is care of magical creatures, though I didn't have that class yet. Transfiguration is a big field and also things like Astronomy, Flying, Defense against Dark arts. And a lot more you can pick later on during study." Another yawn.

Esme was shocked that there were so many subjects but in a positive way. She was worried that Hermione may had a loose education, since she had no clue what was involved in the whole wizarding thing, but this sounded very impressive. "this sounds fascinating! Can you show me a few things tomorrow?" She asked excited, but Hermione shook her head immediately.

"I am not allowed to do magic, when not in school until I will be 17 years old. If it wasn't for a special license I wouldn't even be allowed to have my wand with me, now that I am enrolled in Ilvermorny. They are very strict with Wand-law over here." Another yawn followed.

Esme smiled proudly, that the child was so law-proofed in a field where she couldn't watch out, due to a lack of knowledge. "Sleep a little, dear" she said smoothly and patted her hand.

Hermione laid her Head on the window and closed her eyes, enjoying the soft hum of the car and falling asleep faster than she was able to notice.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Time for Rules**

The next day started already less tense. As Hermione got up she had no problem getting ready for the day and walking around the house on her own. Since she was up especially early, she wanted to make her breakfast on her own, but this quickly got cut off, when Esme noticed her in the kitchen and took over the task. They sat together and chatted happily away while Esme prepared food.

"So what was your favorite class at school?" Hermione had to laugh at the question. "What is it?" Esme was rather confused by this response, not what she had expected.

Hermione tilted her head and felt a little cocky. "Well you and your husband must think pretty similar, since this was the first question he asked me as well." Well technically he asked about her favorite normal school subject, but it still kind of was the same question, she thought. She tried to recall classes for a moment and then came to a conclusion "I don't know!" She answered and Esme shot her a somewhat disbelieving stare. "No really, everything in the first year was so great and new that I couldn't pick a favorite." She tried to eat between her speech. "My parents were muggles…..non magic humans, so for me magic was completely new as well, if you ignore the little incidents of accidental magic when I was younger."

Esme wasn't sure if she got that right. "What is accidental magic?" that sounded like something that could disturb family peace.

Hermione gave her the short explanation and promised her that this is unlikely to happen when you were old enough to control your magic, which she was. "where is Carlisle at?" Hermione ask, noticing the absolute silence in the house.

"He's in the hospital, catching up on his work." Esme started to clean up a few things that Hermione didn't need anymore. "It's strange when the house is so silent, isn't it?" She said a little sad, but the witch couldn't put a finger on what exactly was bothering the woman. "You never will experience this again as soon as the children are back."

Oh that! She must be missing her kids. Hermione didn't consider that at all. It wasn't like she had any family feeling developed yet and she didn't even know them. But Hermione could easily understand how it felt to miss someone. She missed a lot of people lately and the most important ones would never return to her. She stared at her remaining breakfast and couldn't help but feel the sadness overtake her.

It didn't take Esme long before noticing the shift in Hermione's mood. Time to step in! "I am going to bring some food to a families' friend. Do you want to come along?" Hermione looked up interested. "I could also show you around town a little after that, if you want." She was putting dishes in a basket and covered the food with a kitchen towel.

A chance to get to see the town, and maybe she even gets a chance to grab one or two new books. "Absolutely yes!" she answered before missing her chance.

Not even 20 minutes later Hermione found herself in a red, shiny convertible car, with a basket full of delicious smelling food on her lap. "Who is it, we are bringing this crazy amount of food to?" Hermione asked a little curious. "Someone who knows about your family?". It was hard for Hermione to imagine how the Cullen's managed to live here, work and go to school without anyone knowing what they were.

"Oh no no no sweety." Esme answered slightly panicked. "Sorry we should have talked about this before." She reduced the speed a little. "No one knows what we are, no one except Bella. So please never mention it to anyone or we get into a lot of trouble." She explained and even though it sounded like she was really scared of the consequences she spoke in this soft calm way. "A few people suspect, but you must never give them any hints, okay?" it sounded pleading and Hermione was the last one, who wanted to harm those nice people. She nodded eagerly.

Esme stroke over her cheek with the back of her hand. "Thank you." She muttered a lot more relaxed now. But she mentioned something that confused Hermione a little. "So Bella is none of you? Carlisle mentioned that she's Edwards new girlfriend, I somehow assumed she would be…..well… like you?"

Esme shook her head. "No. She is human. The man we are visiting is her father. I swear I have no clue how this man was able to survive on his own before Bella moved here." Hermione caught the woman rolling her eyes and had to giggle. A vampire that rolls it's eyes annoyed. Ron would never believe that. "She would like to be like us, but that is a difficult topic in our family. Better you don't mention it towards Rosalie or Edward." Esme advised and she couldn't help but try to guess what kind of fight laid behind this story.

Esme pulled the car into the driveway of a house, that reminded Hermione a lot the one in the book 'the secret garden' it looked cute and she could imagine anyone who lived in it being happy with their home. This changed when the door opened. A man that looked quite a bit older than Carlisle or Esme opened the door. He looked tired even though it was still early morning. e looH

"Oh had a long day yesterday, chief?" Esme asked sympathetic. The man nodded with a grunt and stepped aside to let them in. Hermione was a little disappointed by the look of the interior. The outside of the house looked like a lovely family home but the inside looked as if the furniture and décor didn't change for the past 20 years. The wall paint surely wasn't it's original color anymore due to time and life happening around it and a few of the shelfs and tables looked fairly retro.

Esme placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder and made her step in front of her. "Who's this young lady?" The man asked in a voice you only use when you are talking to a child. It offended Hermione a little, but she was twelve, this probably counted as child to most people. Hermione wanted to reach out a hand to introduce herself but she had to hold the basket in both hands. "Hermione Granger. Pleased to meet you." She said straight forward, none of the shyness around, she held when she met Esme.

The vampire smiled a proud smile. "She's living with us for now, we hope to keep her around." She explained to the chief. "I thought it would be good, if you two meet now, so you know where to place her, if she starts trouble in town!" Esme shot Hermione a playful stern look and it took the witch a while to get the joke.

"Oh you are Police chief then?" Hermione concluded.

The man gave a quick nod "Yeah, So you better behave." He shot her a wink and she had to giggle. Then he took the basket from her and led the way to the kitchen to put it on the kitchen table. Hermione was thankful, the thing got heavier every minute. "I guess you have the space and money to take in another kid." He said thoughtful more to himself than to Esme, who chose to ignore the statement. "Is Bella okay? She didn't call every day, as she promised she would."

Esme pulled the towel off of the dishes inside the basket and placed them on the table one by one. "Oh those kids are horrible, they didn't call us either. But They are fine. You know how they are they only contact us, if something went down the hill." She tried to calm him. "I bring you a little more food, so you won't eat this horrible instant stuff!" now she sounded like scolding a kid and the chief looked rather cowed too. Hermione didn't have the feeling as if he would argue with Esme ever. "You can eat the Casserole now and put the Pizza in the freezer." She advised. And as if it was an order he put the Casserole into the fridge and the pizza in the Box below.

"Do you want some ah…..coffee or tea?" Charlie asked, trying to be polite after he just got bossed around. But The woman shook her head, and managed to even make this look graceful.

"No thank you." She declined the offer politely. "I promised Hermione to show her around town and Carlisle will be home early today." She shushed Hermione to the front door. "But if you need anything, feel free to call me. Bella would be mad if we didn't make sure you stay healthy!" The poor man really must feel like a kid, Hermione thought.

…

 _(Italy)_

Alice watched as Rose and Emmet were looking at some hand crafted jewelry at a market booth. On the other side of the street Edward, Jasper and Bella sat down and the boys made fun of Bella's eating habits as she tried to eat something sweet with a lot of powdered sugar on it. Her face was covered in it as well. She couldn't help but smile to herself. This was nice, a vacation in human pace. Sure a few times Emmett got annoyed with it, but she knew that all of them enjoyed it in some way.

The shopkeeper handed her the Cola she ordered and she went to bring it over to Bella. It was just a moment of slipping attention, a second of letting her thoughts wander, and everything it took to ruin the surprise. As she walked over and saw Jasper laughing at Bella, she wondered briefly if things still would be like this with their new sister was around and how she would be like. And while she still noticed her mistake and tried helplessly to make her thought unthought, Edwards head already shot up and stared at her in disbelief.

She still was a few steps away from the table they sat on but she clearly could hear the enraged "What" that Edward let out breathlessly.

How could she let her thoughts slip like that? She wasn't the only one to hear it. Bella stared confused from Edward to her and back and it only took Rosalie and Emmett seconds to notice that something was wrong and walk over to them. As everyone stared at her she only had one support. Jasper came to stand behind her and forced her to move close to the crowd of their siblings instead of standing on the crowded street. "Now you have to tell them" he said in defeat.

He was right, now he had to tell them…..

…

 _(Cullen's Home)_

Hermione decided that she liked Forks. It was small enough to not be too crowded for her taste and big enough to find something new in every corner. Esme showed her the local community places, the school and a food place. The most curious thing was 'the border'. Apparently there was a border in the woods, the Cullen's were not to pass. Esme allowed Hermione to go there, but never alone only with Bella or other humans. This should have puzzled her more, but it just reminded her a lot of the forbidden forest and this made her feel a lot more at home.

On the way back home, Hermione told a little about the forbidden Forest and how Harry had to go there as punishment in their first year.

While Esme was really interested in her stories, those methods made her shudder a little. Who would send a child or children in this case into a probably dangerous magical forest? This seemed rather odd to her.

By the time they got back, Hermione was ready to eat lunch and then watched some TV. This was somewhat comical to her. Her friends were sitting in Hogwarts right now, studying, while she was actually watching cartoons in a very modern living room.

Later she was reading in her Charms Textbook trying to not fall behind too much even without classes, until Carlisle came home from work. She spend some time with him in his study, asking questions about his work, the mysterious border and the local school. He happily answered all her questions and in return asked a few about her own research that day.

Hermione helped Esme making dinner afterwards and when she was done eating the two vampires sat together with her in the living room. It felt like a nice routine already. Hermione felt like she could call this place home.

After a while of relaxing peace. Carlisle turned off the TV and turned to her, causing Esme to look up as well. "We should discuss a few rules." He stated. And Hermione sat up straight, showing that she was paying attention. "We already spoke about this and I was thinking about it during work, today."

Esme pulled a questioning eyebrow up. "Rules?" she asked a little confused. "I mean yes we had rules for the others too, but I think 'don't kill any humans'" doesn't really apply for Hermione." She pulled a bit of rebelling hair out of Hermione's face as she eyed her husband skeptical and the young girl couldn't help but giggle and then instantly feel bad for laughing about the 'don't kill humans' part.

Carlisle chuckled as well, and felt similar bad. "No of course not. I mean things like bed times, not telling anyone what we are, no potion brewing in the bedroom…..things like that".

Hermione looked at Esme. "I think that's a good idea. I am actually a fan of house rules…..even though I had a history of breaking them at Hogwarts" she admitted with a guilty blush on her cheeks.

Together the three of them came up with a nice list of rules:

 _Rule#1: Don't tell anyone about the family-secret_

 _Rule#2: Don't wander around the woods alone_

 _Rule#3: Bedtime at 9:00pm during week and 10pm at the weekend_

 _Rule#4: At least 4 hours of home study, as long as she's off school_

 _Rule#5: Brewing only in the kitchen_

 _Rule#6: Tell someone, if there is any problem._

 _Rule#7: Speak up, if the others try to convince you to do risky thing. (You are not as unbreakable as them)_

 _Rule#8: If you need something say so. If we need you to do something do so._

 _Rule#9: If a door is closed, knock. If it's open you can enter._

 _Rule#10: 3 healthy meals a day!_

Hermione wrote them all down. She would pin them to her door as soon as she had her own room. Her own room in her new home. This felt right.

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 **AN:** Okay so I sped up thing a little so next chapter the Cullen will return home 😉. Since a lot of you asked. NO harry will not be adopted as well BUT I do have plans or him. The reason he doesn't get adopted simply is that I can't imagine Dumbledore letting his secret weapon go anywhere else. Also I will end this fanfic as soon as the whole Adoption process is done, but continue in a second fanfiction with Ilvermorny and some vampire action. Because this was about finding home and family. But no worries it still will be a few chapters, I am not nearly done here.


	16. Chapter 16

**AN:** _So as I mentioned before I am not a huge fan of the Twilight movies, however I sometimes check out a few scenes of certain characters to get inspired for my chapters. And while doing this I happened to watch a scene about Jasper, for the first time in English. I was shocked! It is so funny how his voice is all manly and deep in English because in German he's the total opposite, calm slow speaking and a soft voice and that was all I knew of him so far. I think I have to overthink my whole idea of him xD_

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 **Chapter 16: Time to meet the Cullens**

The next days passed in routine and peace. During the mid of week Hermione's Furniture arrived, but Carlisle told her he wanted to wait until the kids are home, so one of them could help him putting things together. Hermione protested, since Alice would need her own room when she came back but Carlisle assured her that the room would be done in no time.

One morning she got up and found that her room already had wall paneling and painting. Later she discovered that this was Esme's entertainment during the night. It occurred to the witch more and more that she was the only one ever sleeping in this household.

She spend a lot of time outside of the house. Something she never would have done at Hogwarts, but she liked the foggy weather and the nature right in front of their door.

On Thursday it was raining too much to be outside and she didn't feel like studying a lot. But she discovered something in the living room. Someone here had a thing for gaming and an unprotected Playstation. If anyone would have told her that she would be playing video games during a school-week, she would have laughed about it. But one and a half week without friends her age and too much free time could peak new interests. She didn't find any games to it but one disc was inside the console, the game was about fighting off undead, zombie like enemies and collecting notes. Not her thing and a little ironic but after a while she felt, that she got a little addicted to the task of completing tasks. When Esme came back home from shopping she turned the evil thing off and made Hermione help her putting things away in the kitchen.

Only when she woke up on Friday morning she felt her stomach turn. She didn't waste a thought about this before but on this morning she realized it was Friday and she would meet the other Cullens. And even though Carlisle and Esme were nothing but nice towards her, she really didn't look forward to meet them. She felt bad for this, it was a bad character trait to not want to meet the people that take you in so kindly, but she had a feeling that she would have trouble fitting in and she really didn't want to go through this. If she could stay alone with the two adults she would have been just happy. But asking them to send the other Kids away, probably was no option.

Somewhat nervous she got ready for the day. Breakfast was eaten in no time and she tried to focus on some of her textbooks, it was a hopeless mission. Around 11am, Carlisle walked into the living room to check on Hermione. "Are you alright there?" He asked a little worried when he caught her staring holes into space. She didn't hear him enter, as usual. Shaking her head she tried to get her head free and focus on the vampire.

"ugh yeah. To be honest I am nervous and can't focus on study." She admitted, slamming her book shut and getting up from the place on the soft carpet she laid on to read.

Carlisle walked over to her and sat into one of the armchairs, leaning forward he placed his elbows on his knees and folded his hands in front of him. "There is really no reason to be scared. They are all really nice and I am sure they will be happy to have you here. Every single one of them."

Hermione couldn't really believe that. They sounded just too damn perfect. This would be so awkward.

Carlisle could feel how this didn't make her feel better the slightest. "How about we run away and just won't be here when they get home?" He offered. Surely this would make her interested.

And it did. Her eyes instantly were shining with hope of escape. "What do you mean?" She tried to sound skeptical but failed hard, it was impossible for the doctor to overhear her longing to follow through this plan.

"How about you and I go out for a little and when we come back they will be already here. It gives you a little more time to mentally prepare and them time to come home before being confronted." This seemed like the better approach in his opinion anyway. When they got home everyone would be a little stressed and it would be an awkward introduction. Better make them meet when everyone settled in.

Hermione didn't need to hear anymore, she was absolutely down for this. "Where do we go?" was all she needed to know.

…

"How could you keep this from us?" Rosalie spat furious.

"How could they do this without asking us first?" Edward complained

"You betrayed us Alice, you made us go to Italy on purpose." Rosalie again

"This Family only works when we are all honest with each other" Edward again.

Alice lost patience. Especially since she already knew that everything would be okay in the end, this whining felt so pointless. Although she had to admit right now she wasn't sure how the end was supposed to turn out good. Their parents and their newest addition already were the enemy for Rose and Edward.

"Is she a cool one?" Emmett asked. And Alice had to smile. You always can count on Emmett to be free of prejudice. At least one of her siblings didn't only think about his own good first. Rosalie and Edward stared in disbelief at their brother, while he wasn't sure what he did wrong. "What?" he asked innocently and Alice hugged him briefly. This was the first nice response she heard about the news of a new addition to the family, during the hole flight back home.

"I don't know what she is like." Alice decided to only respond to useful questions from now on, which crossed Rose and Edwards questions out, so she spoke facing Emmett. "But I saw that she is a lot younger than we are." A shocked gasp from Rose, told Alice that she got the wrong idea so Alice continued "and she is none of our kind!" she said annoyed. She knew this wasn't as obvious to the others as it was to her but Rosalie's reaction was an insult towards Carlisle, even if she wasn't aware of it. But Alice' last declaration, caused the blond woman to look up surprised.

Exactly the response Alice hoped for and she planned on keeping the general mood set on curiosity until they reached home. This goal would have been accomplished a lot easier with Jasper's help, but he had his own private mission right now.

He and Bella sat a few seats away, since Edward was set on questioning Alice. Jasper used the chance to separate the human girl and solve a whole different issue. Okay Rose and Edward were mad, because Alice didn't tell them as soon as she knew. But they already know that his wife has reasons to keep information and reveals them at given time and as soon as their anger dies out they will remember that. Now Bella was another case, as soon as Alice told them about it he felt an incredible wave of Jealousy from her and this needed to be solved before they got home.

Sure it wasn't Jealousy at first. First there was surprise, then there was nervousness, fear and then it turned into Jealousy. Maybe his brother was oblivious to his lovers moods, but he wasn't and he would handle this without much drama.

Bella kept turning around to get a look on Edward. She was a little upset that he just let her go with Jasper that easily and also somewhat uncomfortable. They never spoke much so far. Sure Jasper was always around when she was with the Cullens, but they never really were alone before.

"So do you want to tell me what is going on in your head or do I have to ask uncomfortable questions?" Jasper asked right away, maybe Edward was a fan of digging around but he surely wasn't. Somewhat shocked Bella's head went from staring at Edward to staring at him.

"What do you mean?" She asked a little more harsh than was normal for her. Her brown eyes betrayed her immediately. They showed guilt.

"Did you forget that I not only can manipulate emotions, which I wasn't doing during the whole vacation by the way – so don't try to blame anything on me, but also can feel them?" A lopsided smile appeared on his face. This wasn't only the first talk they ever shared in private this also was the first time he caught her angry. This would be fun once she was one of them, he imagined the fights between her and Emmett would be quite a show.

"Stop…..No messing with my head!" she complained and he instantly held his hands up in defense. He didn't intend on meddling around here, he really just wanted to talk this out before it leads to any more issues.

"We can talk through this step by step if you are okay with it" he made it sound like a compromise but they both knew it was none. "You were as surprised as everyone, understandable." He started without waiting for response.

"You were not." She accused him, although less angry than before. "I guess Alice told you?"

He shook his head slowly. "She didn't. At least not the whole story. All I knew was that Carlisle is bringing someone home with him. I did not know that she will become a permanent part of the family." He spoke in a low voice. Not like the talk could be kept secret from the rest of their group, but at least from the rest of the passengers.

This answer seemed to make Bella think. "Then why aren't you mad? It will change everything." She tried to whisper, but was still to angry to keep her voice low.

"Alice and I were the last ones to join the family, so I can't say this for sure, but as far as I know, someone joining the family never really changed all that much. We just became stronger as we were when we were alone."

Bella stared at him with a skeptical expression on her face.

"What I mean is. Carlisle will still be Carlisle no matter what. And he is what makes the family work together. Esme will love no one less because there is one more and Emmett will still do stupid, crazy, funny things. Edward will still be crazy about you and spy on our thoughts. It's not like everything will be different."

The young woman laid back in her chair and thought for a moment, visibly touched by his words and convinced to overthink the matter.

Jasper felt safe to continue "so I guess that explains the part, where you felt sad." He could hear that his siblings stopped arguing and were listening to their - supposed to be private - talk. Thankfully Bella seemed unaware of this fact.

"The part that worries me and that I don't understand is why do you feel jealous?" as soon as he spoke the words he felt guilt radiate from her. But this probably was a good thing. He knew Bella was a good person, and feeling guilty about something she knew wasn't right to do, showed just that. He didn't keep speaking, instead waited for her to form an explanation in her head.

Then she finally answered. "I just…..I thought I would be the next one to become a part of the family. And…" she stopped and resorted her thoughts "And I am already around for so long and am still not fully accepted. But Carlisle was only there for three weeks and comes back with someone that is instantly a part of you…..That just seems so unfair." She didn't like herself speaking those things out loud, she didn't like the person she became through this and he could feel it as if those were his own emotions.

He cleared his throat, even though there was no real need for it, it was more a sign that was supposed to tell others to pay attention to him. Something that already worked quite well in his human life and still did it's magic now. "We should get a few things straight here." His voice sounded strict. "You are already a part of the family. You are Edwards world and my sister and none of the others will tell you otherwise." His words were nice but his voice sounded like he was giving instructions and Bella didn't dare to say a word until she felt he was done, she didn't even dare to breath too loud.

"Whatever makes you think you wouldn't be fully accepted by us, only is in your head, believe me." This one sounded angry and for a few seconds Bella felt sorry for saying anything like that, since it obviously hurt him…..hurt them. Ashamed she stared to the floor

"And of course she get instantly accepted in our family. Just as we accepted you and as Alice and I got accepted. This is nothing you have to fight for. If you need it, if you need a family and if you are willing to try and be a better version of yourself, then Carlisle will give you a home." Anyone who listened, couldn't miss the certainty he had in his own words. "If she is with us now, then there probably was a reason behind it, a reason why she needs us." He turned his head to look at his siblings scolding. They all were pretty caught by his words as well and he felt understanding bloom in both Rosalie and Edward.

Bella pulled a hand through her hair. "I…..You….." she tried to transform her emotions into thoughts. "I am sorry. I never really saw it like that…..how could I not see this?"

Jasper looked out of the window "Maybe this is a chance for you." He peaked Bella's curiosity. "She's mortal just like you, maybe this gives both of you a better connection among us, than anyone else could have with her."

This actually sounded nice. She could share things with her, that she just couldn't share with any of them. They could eat together. She wouldn't be the only one who has to sleep in the house anymore too and she finally could talk with someone about all the awkward little things that came with living with vampires. This made her look forward to the whole thing.

Jasper was very pleased with the change in mood-set he got from both Bella and his siblings. As he felt Bella building up excitement to meet the new girl he felt done with his task "good" he said satisfied and squeezed her hand briefly. She smiled at him

"Thank you" she felt a lot lighter now.

Alice watched how everyone came down from their anger and started thinking about everything in a calmer way. She was proud of her mate. Jasper did a great job. So in the end he was the missing puzzle piece to make everything be okay, just as he always was in her world.

The rest of the trip home was considerable quiet. Everyone was more or less busy with their own thoughts. That means everyone was busy with their own thoughts and Edward was busy with everyone else thoughts. But Jasper was happy that no one felt negative about the meeting that was ahead. At some point during the drive home Bella fell asleep, which was probably a good thing considering Emmett's driving-style.

When they finally reached their home and pulled their cars into the garage, Jasper couldn't disentangle his own nervousness and excitement from those of his siblings. Everyone was curious and wanted to meet her now. Until Edward mixed in a feeling of malicious joy. "She's not here" he announced with an evil grin. And everyone let out a groan of disappointment, except Bella who let out a yawn instead.

When they entered the house through the garage, Esme was already waiting for them and they had a million questions, but Esme send them on a quick hunting trip right away, before answering any.

…

Carlisle was more than pleased with his plan. He went to take Hermione out for some ice-cream and they tried to talk about what to expect of the meeting, but they got interrupted by a call on Carlisle work phone. There was an animal attack and he had to go there. He wanted to bring Hermione back home first but she insisted on coming with him. "I really would like to see how you work!" she said, interest burning in her eyes. And even when he told her, that she wouldn't see much since there was no way he would her get a look on a dead human, she kept pleading to go with him.

He thought this was a bad idea but it turned out pretty well. She got really curious about all different kind of things and the officers working at crime scene took care of the girl while Carlisle was busy working. She asked them questions about everything and anyone and they had fun answering all of them. "What you are going to take our junior detective away, Doctor Cullen? They asked when it was time to leave.

There was still time so they went to a museum one of the policemen, told her about. Nothing he ever would have considered interesting for a child, but Hermione managed to proof him wrong once again. She totally forgot about her fear of meeting his children. Once they were done with the museum a rumbling of her stomach reminded Carlisle that she had to eat something for dinner.

They went to the towns most famous diner and met Charlie there. He greeted them and Hermione didn't hesitate to ask if they can sit with him, since he seemed kind of lonely in her opinion. Charlie felt obviously startled by this and Carlisle didn't feel close enough to the man to sit with him but none of the man dared to resist the wish of a young girl. A long awkward silence followed and got broken when Hermione ordered her meal. Apparently Charlie felt like he couldn't let this silence come up again. "So my policemen were pretty impressed by you earlier today." He addressed Hermione. They chatted away a while Carlisle and Charlie about the case and Hermione and Charlie about the possible career of a detective. And even though it was clear this wasn't for her she kept her interest up during the whole conversation.

"Can you do me a favor Doctor Cullen?" Charlie ask and he could nearly see how uncomfortable this made him.

"It's Carlisle for you. And yes of course how can I help you?" He was curious. Chief Swan usually wasn't someone to ask for favors.

"When the kids get home today, can you send Bella home?" he sounded tired and sad. "I know she likes being at yours and I know she and Edward are inseparable and you like having her around but hell I haven't seen my own daughter for good two weeks. Her mother already is threatening to come here."

Hermione could hear that the man was hurt but she couldn't really understand why.

Carlisle however could. He feared to fail at his newly won task as a father and to lose something he just was happy to have back. He was scared that Bella was at their place so much because they had a more healthy family life. And he had Carlisle's whole sympathy in the matter. He decided to talk with Bella later, so she would spend some time with her father in the future. She probably still would have eternity with them, but she only had her father now. "You are absolutely right chief Swan. I would have sent her home to you either way. Don't worry about it."

Hermione ordered a big piece of cake for dessert and finished it in an unhealthy short amount of time. "How can you eat so much, girl? I wish my daughter had such an healthy appetite!" Charlie was staring in disbelief as Hermione contemplated to have another piece.

She only now noticed that this maybe seemed odd to people who didn't know her and blushed a little. She looked apologetic at Carlisle, since he had to pay for her hunger. "It's just…uhm….the boarding school I attended until now always provided a wide range of meals…..I am just used to it I guess." This wasn't a great excuse for it, but she never before felt bad about her eating habits.

Carlisle chuckled "Don't overthink it. Eat all you want." He didn't want to have to worry about two of his girls not eating enough. It made him happy that Hermione was no issue when it came down to that.

When everyone was full and happy, they said their goodbyes and left the diner into different directions. Hermione didn't waste a thought of the threat ahead until they reached the house.

"Do I really have to go in there?" Last time she was that nervous, she had to face Snape after melting a cauldron.

Carlisle gifted her the warm soft smile, that she already acknowledged as typical for him, and put a hand on her head. "It will be okay. This might be a little tough right now, but tomorrow everything will already be easier." Hermione wasn't convinced. "Take a deep breath and just see it like pulling off a Band-Aid. We get it over with and then you wont have to worry about it anymore."

She will wasn't feeling better but had to laugh anyway. Unmistakable what the man's job was. They left the car and as they reached the door that connected Garage and house, Carlisle could already hear that they all were gathered in the living room.

They walked into the house and he took Hermione's jacket to put it away. "We are home." He said, being well aware that they already knew, it still felt like this would be more natural from Hermione's point of view. "come on" he told her and put a hand on her back to lead her to the living room. He could feel her nervousness in every breath she took and really wished he could make this easier for her but this was just one of the situations in life you had to get done. Like meeting your girlfriends parents or having to speak in front of class.

They entered the Living room and Hermione saw…a lot of unknown faces there. They were sitting in the living room. Well most of them were sitting. He caught a beautiful blond woman standing behind one of the couches. "Uhm…..hello?" She mumbled not knowing who to look at she just turned her head to look at Carlisle. He gave her an encouraging smile and squeezed her shoulder lightly as he came to stand behind her.

Hermione tried to take in the different faces as Carlisle introduced her and told them how he met her. There was the blond woman. She was tall and just looked perfect. She probably was very beautiful already before she became a vampire. She looked positively surprised, but Hermione couldn't be sure there. In front of her sat Esme who had a tenderhearted smile on her lips. Next to was a girl that looked younger than the rest. This must be Bella, since she was the only one without the foreign golden eyes. Her expression was rather neutral, which just made Hermione more nervous than she already was. Holding her hand and sitting next to her was a boy with bronze hair. His face looked a little as if he was in pain and Hermione wondered if this was somehow her fault. She felt sorry but suddenly his mouth formed a silent laugher. Did he laugh about her? Does she have cake on her face? Why is he laughing? Trying to not fall into complete panic she moved on to the next face. On one of the armchairs was a bulky guy. He was taller than the others and looked like someone who worked out daily. He had a nice encouraging smile on him, just like Esme's and as Hermione looked at him he gave her a thumbs up that made her giggle. On the second couch was a pretty young woman with short dark hair. She was the most adorable Person Hermione ever saw and she waved her fingers at her when she looked at her. Hermione waved back in a shy manner before moving on to the last one, a young man with longer blond hair. He sat very straight and smiled at her.

As she was done taking in the different people she listened to Carlisle speaking. "I know that this is no decision I am to make on my own. So see it as a trial for all of you. I just want that you take time to get to know each other and then all of you can speak your mind about how we keep going with this." He ended his speech. What now should she say something? She was nervous, they all were so much older and so much prettier and probably could her hear heart beat out of her chest.

Jasper thought his siblings nervousness was nerve killing earlier, but the waves he got from the young girl were worrying. So he decided to take some action before things got any more weird. He was a little angry at Edward for using his gift on her right away, he knew by the way he laughed when she entered the room. "Hello Hermione. Nice to finally meet you, Alice already told a little about you."

"He….hello!" Hermione stuttered. When he mentioned Alice, the adorable woman next to him smiled jumped up, walked over to her and gave her a quick hug

"Nice to meet you finally in person. I am Alice" she explained with a sweet smile and Hermione was out of words. She smelled so good too. It took her a few seconds to get her thoughts back together before she was able to respond

"Thank you for letting me sleep in your room and for the welcome gift!" Hermione found her voice again. She wanted to get this off her chest ever since she came here.

The bulky guy suddenly was next to her. Hermione was sure he was sitting in the chair a second ago. He lifted her up in a bear hug "Nice, Dad got us a kiddo sister! " he exclaimed and put her back on her feet. "I am Emmett. If you get bored by the others, I am the funny one!" this made her smile and Emmett found that he liked her smile a lot. "The beautiful lady over there is Rosalie." He explained

"Welcome in our family" was the contribution of Rosalie, much to everyone's surprise. She was smiling now as well and Hermione thought she would like her, she seemed cautious and polite. Attributes Hermione liked in people.

Her eyes wandered to the brown haired girl who was giving a wave now too. "Hey, I am Bella. The non-vampire around here. Glad to have an ally now!"

Hermione had a moment of understanding. "Oh Bella, I already heard a lot about you. I met your dad today. Glad to get a face to the name." Hermione felt bolder now.

Edward laughed out loud now. "Seems like your dad has some questions for you later." He told Bella before turning to her "Nice to meet you Hermione. My name is Edward." His voice was very calm and somehow icy, but it had a pleasant sound. If it wasn't for the disturbing laughing before she would be sure he's a nice guy, but now she wasn't so sure how to feel about him. He shot her an amused look, and Hermione still wondered why.

Now she met everyone and Carlisle was right, it already was easier. She felt less heavy. "Thank you that you let me be here." She announced into the room before Carlisle pulled her a little closer and placed a soft kiss on her hair. "I am proud of you and you survived." He joked.

"So you are a real witch?" Emmett asked excited. Rosalie slapped his chest "Emmett!" she scolded.

"it's fine" Hermione giggled. "Yes a real witch. So you are a real vampire?" she asked cocky and earned a laugher from the rest of the family.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: Time to learn how big sisters care**

After their little meet and greet the night before Carlisle took Bella aside to talk to her about Charlie and send her home. Knowing exactly well, that Edward wouldn't spend the night at home as a consequence. So this left no time to get Hermione's room done before it was time to sleep, which left the witch to spend another night in the gorgeous bedroom of Alice.

Several hours later Hermione woke up to some unfamiliar noise but her eyes refused to open. As if she could just go back to sleep, if reality never hit her eyes. Her brain was still clouded by sleep.

This condition rapidly changed when the noise actually reached her brain as well. Someone was in her room! Well at least in the room she occupied. She shot up sitting straight and panicked in her bed. She grasped her wand from the night stand in a fluid motion and was about to cast Lumos. To hell with the law of not doing magic out of school.

But she got interrupted as suddenly the light got switched on. After a few seconds of burning pain in her eyes her vision became clear again.

What she got to see was Jasper, who stood there with both hands up in the air as if someone pointed a gun at him. Well somehow that was the case, Hermione had to admit as she looked from him to her wand and let it drop on the bed finally. „Woah! All good girl. I didn't want to wake you, let alone scare you." He apologized, a little startled himself. He didn't expect her to point that stick at him immediately. „I just needed to get a few clothes out of our closet." He explained.

Confused, tired and at the same time horribly awake Hermione tried to follow his words. Slowly the words that reached her brain turned into sentences and finally into some sense. „Oh….I am sorry you just scared…wait." She looked at him and then to the open closet door. „What do you mean. I thought that was Alice room?" she asked puzzled.

Jasper was worried to scare her even more so he didn't leave the spot he was standing on. „Yeah and mine. I used to have my own bedroom but turned it into a study. I mean we only need one bedroom and we don't sleep so."

In her current state of a not fully awakened mind this was an adequate enough answer in her eyes. She wanted to lay back down as Rosalie stood in the door abruptly and out of nowhere. Her hands on her hips she glared angry at the blond man. „What do you think you are doing in here?!" it was more a threat than a question. „You woke the human!"

Jasper was wondering what he did to make Rose that angry. Unless most family members he had a very uncomplicated relationship to his pretend-to-be-twin. But what he felt from her was without any doubt anger towards him.

Hermione on the other hand wondered if it was safe to complain about being addressed as ‚the human'. She came to the conclusion, that it was less trouble to let it slip.

„Are you going to say something or do you just keep standing there like a Creep?" she barked at him. After another few perplex seconds she rushed over to him grabbed him by the ear and pulled him out of his own room. As she reached the door with a complaining and confused Jasper in iron-grip she turned to Hermione. „No worries. He will not bother you again. Go back to sleep, okay?" she closed the door behind them.

Still trying to sort out what just happened she laid back down and let her thoughts wander. So her new vampire sister just pulled her new vampire brother away in a way that could be called bullying. What her parents would say about her calling some vampires sisters and brothers. Probably only nice things they always got a little too enthusiastic about everything that wasn't muggle-ish. Often she was the one being concerned about safety things instead of them. They were just proud when they got a letter about her getting punished for fighting a Troll in first year. They had no second thoughts of the dangers, because their girl knew how to watch out for herself. A few tears escaped her eyes as she thought back to it. She had to focus on something else. She couldn't just cry now. She tried to move her thoughts to something else. So this wasn't only Alice room but also Jaspers, huh? That explained a few things about the interior. But if they didn't sleep why did they need bedrooms with actual beds anyway. Why not just make a hobby room out of it. What would they….oh! Hermione had a sudden moment of realization, that made her rather uncomfortable in the current location. No way she would fall asleep here again now. She checked the clock. 5:17am. Might as well just get up now. It was a little early but not too early to count as night anymore.

When Hermione walked down the stairs she caught Emmett and Edward sitting on the couch. Watching TV. Well Emmett was all interested in the show while Edward just sat there with a grumpy expression on his face. He looked up as Hermione thought that and looked at her, then he left without a word. "Hey the witch is awake again." Emmett jelled. Hermione liked this reaction more. What was wrong with this Edward?

Emmett knew how to read Hermione's puzzled expression. "Don't worry about him." He said calming as he walked over to her. "he just is mad because Bella had to spend the night at her own home and Carlisle made him stay here." He gossiped with an evil smirk when he came to stand in front of her.

The boy was just a giant! Hermione just now noticed how tiny she was compared to him. She tried to get a yawn under control when she suddenly got lifted up in the air, thrown over his massive shoulder and carried away. "He…Hey!" she protested. Those guys seriously had no fear of contact. Hermione was still contemplating how to act modest enough to not seem to natural too fast in their home, when he already handled her as if she always was a part of them. She wanted to protest some more but this made her smile. First a smile, then a laugher and suddenly it turned into uncontrolled sobbing.

Shocked Emmett put her down on one of the kitchen stools. "hat? Why do you cry?" He panicked. Fear that he had hurt her overwrote clear thinking. He didn't think he would hurt her, he never hurt Bella with such actions. He just wanted to make some fun. He always wanted a baby sister to joke around with. Last thing he wanted was to make her cry. Oh god Rosalie would have his head for this. "Talk to me…..pretty please?" he tried puppy eyes, even though he was sure this wasn't something he was good at.

Hermione wiped her eyes between some sobs. She didn't know what overtook her. She was truly happy for a moment when he just was so open to accept her as part of his family. As happy as she wasn't for months. And suddenly it was just too much happiness. She never believed that people really could cry because of good feelings. But here she was proving herself wrong. As she looked into Emmett's face that was pricelessly helpless she managed to stop the weird crying session and slapped his arm playful, which she instantly regretted, it hurt her knuckles. "You didn't hurt me!" she tried to reassure him. "I just….." How could she explain that? "…..was a little too happy" she noticed herself that this just sounded ridicules.

Emmett blinked blankly. "You are so weird!" he exclaimed and ruffled through her hair. He was just about to pull another joke to make her laugh again when he stopped dead in tracks. Rosalie entered the kitchen and he knew it seconds before she appeared in the room.

"Good Morning" Hermione mumbled a little abashed. And much to Emmett's positive surprise Rosalie answered in an unusual soft and nice tone, she didn't used ever since Bella stepped into their life. It worked it's magic, because the little witch smiled happily.

But then her tone changed abruptly as she addressed him. "What did you do you big dummy? You made her cry didn't you!?" She was mad at him just as expected. She shushed him away "Go!" was all she said and he was smart enough not to anger his wife any more.

"I am sorry about his behavior. He is too high-spirited at times." Rosalie apologized for him and opened the Fridge. Hermione wanted to explain what happened but didn't get a chance to do so, as Rosalie pulled a plate with a finished Sandwich, a few slices of apples and a glass of orange juice out of the Fridge and placed it in front of her. "I am also sorry that Jasper woke you earlier. You should have slept a little longer. But I prepared breakfast for you earlier that night, so you can eat in peace now." She didn't even wait for her to say anything and left, following Emmett. Hermione had a feeling he would be in more trouble now.

"Thank you" she mumbled before she started eating, well knowing that no one was near the kitchen anymore. This day was getting more and more surreal. She ate her breakfast alone and in silence. After a while it felt just too stupid and she turned on the kitchen-TV and watched a cartoon while she was eating. When she was done eating and only sipped her orange juice Carlisle rushed into the kitchen. He was about to do something in there when he stopped and looked a little confused at Hermione. He checked his watch and then pulled a questioning eyebrow up. "isn't it a little early for you to be up?" he asked concerned. And walked over to the fridge as well. Grabbing a brown paper bag out of it. It looked like a bag of lunch. Hermione's face took a similar questioning expression as his.

"Yeah but first Jasper was…Rosalie…..uhm it's a long story." She didn't feel like he had time to hear her explanation. He seemed rather hurried. "What do you want with the lunch bag?" she asked amused.

He smiled softly. "It just seems less suspicious if I bring lunch now and then at work as well." He explained a little caught. "I will talk to the kids, so they wont wake you again but later I am running late for work."

It warmed Hermione's heart that even in this strange family there were morning rituals like that. "No no it's fine really. It wasn't as if they didn't try to let me sleep." Hermione really didn't want to cause any more trouble

"Okay." He gave in. He tapped a phone that stood on the kitchen counter. "My work number is saved on it. So you can call if there is any problem." He gave her a brief kiss on her hair "See you later and have a nice day with the others" and then he left.

When Hermione imagined her future life in a new family she always imagined feeling guilty and out of place in such situations. Because this wasn't her family it was someone else family that had to serve as her home until she was old enough to care for herself. But much to her confusion this wasn't the case. It felt warm and right and like family.

When she was done putting her plate away, she knew it would be wise to start studying but she was too tired and t was too early. So she went to the living room. Where Rosalie and Edward were gathered now. As she entered Edward looked at her and was about to say something, but before he could Rosalie barked "Edward no! Leave her alone!" at him and he left with an annoyed sigh. What was that about?

"Ahm Rosalie? Why….?" She didn't know what to ask exactly but hoped the beautiful woman would get it anyway.

"It is unfair if he is around you." She sounded annoyed and clearly didn't want to say anything else about it.

Hermione didn't feel like she had a chance to keep going from here so she switched on the TV, pulled a blanket from on of the armrests of the couch, snuggled herself into it and tried to relax. Maybe she should have slept more she felt very tired.

"Shouldn't you be studying?" She asked a little careful. Hermione nodded heavily.

"I should but did you check the time. It is way too early for me." Within split-seconds Hermione regretted her answer as Rosalie answered with a few curses about Jasper waking her up. "No no no. I didn't sleep well anyway" Hermione tried to defuse the vampires anger. If she learned anything by now then it was that Rosalie was easy to anger. Though this was like living with a ticking time-bomb. No way she was always like this.

It seemed to work "Maybe you should sleep a little more" she said calmer. "I will make sure the others let you nap." She got up and walked away.

Hermione had a lot of questions but she decided that all of them could wait until she had a little more sleep.

When she awoke again it was already 8 am and no one was around. Her first impulse was to use the time of being alone to study but then she had a better idea. She was halfway sure that they all were somewhere in or around the house. She went upstairs and just hoped she wouldn't meet Rosalie on the way. When she was on top of the stairs she walked awkwardly up the hallway. She wasn't exactly sure whose room was where. Now she just could try and hope no one unwanted answered her call. "Edward?" She asked in a normal speaking voice. She knew vampires had good hearing. For a while nothing happened, then finally a door opened and the bronze haired head peaked out from behind it.

"How can I help you, …..Hermione?" There was a weird pause as if he had to remember her name or didn't know if it was okay to address her with it. While weird it felt nicer than anything he showed so far.

Hermione walked a few steps up to him. "can we talk for a minute?" she asked and observed how surprise formed on his face. He stepped aside to let her in like a gentleman.

The room surprised her. It was so much different from Alice' room and much smaller, but it had an even bigger window. And there on the couch sat Bella and gave her a welcoming and awkward wave. "Oh hello. I didn't know you were here." Hermione greeted a little embarrassed.

"Yeah….You uhm…were asleep when I arrived and I tried not to wake you." She explained, obviously very uncomfortable with the intruder. Not like Hermione intended to be one, but that's how she felt right now and she would make things worse. She was just about to say something as Edward took over for her.

"I think Hermione wants a private talk. Could you wait for me downstairs, Bella? When we are done here we can leave for our trip anyway." He requested in a calm and cool voice. And Hermione felt the need to tell that she was sorry one million times to Bella, as an unhappy expression controlled the young woman's face.

As soon as she was gone Hermione turned to face her new somehow-brother. "I am sorry I didn't want to interrupt…." She started but once again got cut off.

"I know you didn't. I also know why you want to talk." A lopsided smile. He was amused about the situation and this frustrated the little witch in some way.

"How?" she snapped unintendedly, which earned an amused chuckle.

"The others are so used to having me around, that no one even thought of explaining to you what my talent is." He laughed and a list of possible reasons for everyone's behavior formed in Hermione's brain. "Well except Rose. She simply didn't want to tell you because she was scared it will push you away from us." An arrogant snort left him "As if you would never notice."

Hermione got annoyed "Could you please just tell me what I am missing." She complained. She felt as if she had to talk to him the same way she used to talk to Ron or he would never get to the point.

"You know that Alice can see glimpses of the future." Hermione nodded. "That is her gift. But she is not the only one in our family with such a talent." He explained slowly. Too slow for Hermione's taste. She was among the top in Snape's classes. If she could follow him on bad days, she didn't need a teenage vampire to explain things in dummy-mode for her. As she thought about this comparison the vampire laughed and instantly sped up his speech. "Jasper for example can feel and manipulate the emotions of everyone around him."

Hermione's eyes turned big "No way! That's wicked." She let out in true amazement.

"And I am a mind reader. I can hear everyone's thoughts. Sometimes I can ignore them. If needed I can focus on certain ones, but I always hear them."

First Hermione was similar amazed as she was about Jaspers talent, but then she remembered all the things she thoughts when being around him and put her hand over her mouth in shocked regret. "You…..Damn…..I am sorry." She felt embarrassed and she deserved it, she didn't have the nicest of thoughts about him.

He laughed out once more. "Don't worry I heard worse before." He tried to calm her.

"but why are you well…like that with me." She didn't know how to word it in her head she thought about the phrases 'ignoring me', 'acting like an arrogant insane', 'leaving the room when I am there' and most importantly 'let Rosalie shush you away when I enter the room'.

By words alone he wouldn't have known what she meant, but her thoughts were helping. "I just don't want to be on Rose' bad side." He defended his behavior. "ever since the moment she realized you are a mortal, growing, living, young human she went a little overprotective." The whole night already was hell. Rosalie briefed them all to not do anything that would be potentially unhealthy for 'the human', When they put the furniture for her room together last night, she was observing everything like a hawk, no flaws allowed and he did hear how she already busted Jasper and Emmett this morning. "She always wanted kids and you as little sister is the closest she will get to that dream. So she threatened us all to not do anything that could make you unhappy, uncomfortable or put you in potential danger." He complained, knowing that this would be the end of him because Rosalie surely could hear them talk, wherever she was. Now he understood how everyone must feel with him around. "And apparently.." he continued "….me reading your thoughts is something that would make you feel uncomfortable." He ended his explanation and glad to receive satisfied thoughts from her.

"Oh" was all Hermione had to say at the time. But her thoughts were running miles per second. 'Of course this makes me uncomfortable. Who wouldn't be?', 'This went out of control rather fast, why is no one stopping her?', 'kind of sweet that she cares for me that much, I could be a spoiled brat like Malfoy after all.', 'God I am glad he told me'. Were some of the thoughts Edward could pick up.

Soon Hermione got the hint that he was still standing there listening in on her thoughts and got embarrassed once more. "Thank you for sharing this with me, I think I have to speak to her" Hermione admitted and took her leave. How far away did she have to get, to be safe from spying?

"Further than you would like to" was his response to the unspoken question and she shot him an angry glare over her shoulder.

Well this would get annoying for sure, she thought. While she walked down the stairs again she came to the conclusion, that the assault on Jasper and Emmett this morning were consequences of Rosalie trying to make sure Hermione was fine staying here. Well she wanted to get to know everyone and this would not happen if the blond woman kept everyone away from her. She had to do something about that.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: Time for a new experience**

Hermione sat in the living room, pretending to exercise the pronunciation of a few charms, while she thought about how to get to Rosalie's understanding. Esme entered the house at some point. Hermione had no clue where the woman was all day but going by the coat and scarf she was wearing Hermione guessed she was in town, among humans.

She got out of the unrequired warm clothing and walked over to her. "What are you doing dear?" a warm smile spread over her face and she was nearly lightning the entire room up with the happiness she radiated. It made Hermione smile similar wide.

"I try to exercise Charms….." she said and knew she wasn't really trying. It felt bad to lie to the woman. Unexpected to Hermione since she developed a habit of lying to adults in Hogwarts.

Esme saw through the little pause as well "What is it?" she asked softly. There was no pressure behind the question, just worry and care.

But the witch understood by now that there were no secrets in this house. Edward could read minds, Alice saw every decision pulling it's consequences in the future and everyone could hear every talk in and around the house. She didn't want to talk about it and let Rosalie hear about her issue second hand. She needed to talk to her directly, face to face, so she just shook her head. "it's nothing I just can't focus so much on my study'" she lied again and again didn't feel good doing so.

"Well I think you try hard enough if you want to do something-" Esme got interrupted by Emmett's excited yelling. It also didn't go missing for everyone else in the house. Carlisle, Alice and Rosalie were at the front door before Emmett could finish his "Woahhhh that's fucking amazing!". Esme and Hermione went to see what was going on as well but in a human pace. When they came to stand next to the rest Emmet was pointing at a little flying something that desperately kept flying against the front door from outside. It looked as if it tried to break the glass. First Hermione thought it was a bird but then she took a closer look. "Oh!" she let out, knowing exactly what it was.

"That's a flying piece of paper! Emmett yelled the obvious and watched it excited.

While Hermione found it somewhat amusing that he was that excited about a simple letter, it reminded her a lot of her first reaction to the wizarding way of communication. "Let it in please!" Hermione begged and everyone's eyes turned to her. Some questioning some skeptical. Emmett opened the door more than happily and watched as the hyperactive piece of paper made its confused way inside and flapped its wings to move towards her. She opened her hands and as it hovered over them it unfolded it's wings to return into the shape of a normal letter, then it sunk into her palms.

"So cool!" Emmett let out again and was next to her in no time to look at the wicked piece of parchment.

"What is this?" Alice asked in a fairy like sweet voice, that Hermione hadn't a real opportunity to hear yet, aside of their first meeting.

Hermione looked at the wax seal. It was from Hogwarts but it didn't show the schools weapon, but the Slytherin one. She stared confused and answered without thinking about it "It's a Hogwarts-letter…."

"That's how you guys write each other letters? So amazing!" Emmett was still amazed but couldn't pull Hermione out of her confusion.

"What are you waiting for? Open it." Alice pushed a little curious as well.

But Esme shushed them all out of the entrance Hall. "Now let her read the letter in peace you curious beasts!" she laughed and everyone walked into the living room in human pace. The gave her some space, but that didn't mean they didn't want to know what was written in it. Carlisle and Hermione walked in last. "What's wrong?" he asked worried, the confusion that was clearly written on Hermione's face didn't go amiss to him.

She frowned puzzled "This is the wrong seal to be an official Hogwarts letter" she said a little frustrated. "It's the symbol of house Slytherin…..which isn't…or rather wasn't my house." She let herself fall on the floor and sat on the soft rag she was studying on before. Carlisle took a seat in the armchair behind her. "In fact that's like the enemy house." She broke the seal and opened the letter.

"Carlisle was writing about the houses when he was at St. Mungo's" Alice said or rather sang, to give the little witch a hint, that they knew what she was talking about.

Her eyes flew over the written lines. It was a neat, old-fashioned handwriting and she recognized it before she even finished the first word. The signature only confirmed it. Severus Snape, Head of house Slytherin, Potion Master of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

Once Hermione finished reading the letter once she decided to read out loud for everyone to hear. Since the whole 'no secret is safe here' thing going on in the house she didn't want to keep anything from them and there was a line in there, that gave Hermione an idea bout how to deal with Rosalie.

She took a deep breath and started reading:

" _Miss Hermione Jean Granger,_

 _I feel obligated to send you a few documents on behalf of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, required for the adoption process with the Cullen Family and trust in your ability to hand them over to Doctor Carlisle Cullen. "_

A giggle from across the room interrupted her reading "You second name is Jean? I will only call you Jean from now- ouch!" Rosalie slapped Emmett's shoulder.

" _This would have been the task of your head of house, as I am sure you are aware of, however since I also feel the need to word a few of my concerns as Defense against the dark arts teacher, I took over this task._

 _It is not my place to interfere with the decisions of the headmaster. Especially those made in his position as your current, legal Guardian, although I can not come to understand how he came to let a student live with a house full of vampires, this far away from Hogwarts. Up until the current date we are still responsible for your well-being and I will not accept any potential harm to the fulfilling of this task._

 _So I advise you to read the pages 316 to 334 in the DADA Textbook, year 3 of Hogwarts. I am aware of you don't have yet…."_

Hermione stopped reading here for a second to word her own thoughts "As if I didn't read that already…..or didn't buy it already" she said with a proud, evil smile and waited for some response at least from Emmett, but as none came she looked up and saw a sour mood on everyone's face. What Snape had to say about her living with them clearly hurt their feelings. She continued reading out loud

" _I am aware that you do not obtain this book yet and are currently lacking any connection to the wizarding world. To your own safety I made sure to contact a fellow teacher of Ilvermorny to get into contact with you soon. Until then I went through the ordeal to organize a time limited license for you, that allows you to do magic outside of school for the next week. I am sure that someone, who fought a troll in first year is able to defend themselves with those tools given. But I warn you miss Granger, to not let any slips of behavior happen with this opportunity. It will be my name being ashamed at the ministry and I will make sure to make you pay for it should something happen! You might as well use it to practice your first year charms and potions._

 _Severus Snape,_

 _Head of house Slytherin,_

 _Potion Master of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry"_

She finished and looked up again. Everyone still wore a somewhat hurt expression except Rosalie, she looked infuriated. "Troll? What dies he mean Troll?" she snapped her anger not directed at anyone specific.

Not exactly the reaction Hermione hoped for, but at least her plan worked in some way. She wanted to trigger Rosalie with this part, to show her that she wasn't as fragile as she thought. So she took the opportunity to tell the whole story. Well she skipped the part about her crying in the girl's bathroom and also didn't explain the fight against the Troll too detailed, since she was hiding under a sink for the most part. But it was the end result that mattered, which was an unconscienced Troll on the bathroom floor. When she finished her story, she was happy about two things. First: Rosalie didn't actually freak out but looked at her thoughtful. Second: Everyone forgot their bad mood about Professor Snape's bad opinion on them, for now.

"So you are allowed to do some magic now?" Emmett asked with an evil grin and no one had a doubt about what he was up to. As soon as Hermione gave a nod he jumped to his feet "Show some! Show some!"

"The letter said only for self-defense and practice" Esme reminded her overly excited son and before he could protest Carlisle took the word

"It is good that they made sure you have some extra safety. We aren't the only vampires out there anyway" He threw a meaningful look at Esme who gave a barely visible nod. Hermione was sure they had something or someone specific in mind there, but she didn't know enough about their world to get an idea.

"ohhh come on" Emmet whined but no one paid him any attention. As Alice and Rosalie stood up to leave the room again Hermione felt like acting on an impulse was right. She stumbled to her feet and jumped after Rosalie. "Rosalie? " the blond woman turned around and her features softened as she looked down at the girl. "Can you help me with my study and question me on a few topic out of my books?" she asked innocently. Good thing the mind reading guy wasn't around. The witch wasn't exactly excited about confronting the topic straight forward, but maybe if Rosalie got an idea of the things Hermione could do, she would be less worried about her wellbeing. Also Hermione got a feeling that the blond vampire was really nice and wanted to get to know her better.

Alice watched the girl talk to Rosalie and smiled. She wanted to have some time with her today, but it was rare that someone took the opportunity to spend time with Rosalie, so she decided to give her Plans for the day up.

…..

Rosalie was a little confused that the girl picked her of all People to help her study, but nothing in the world would have stopped her from taking over this task. She watched as Hermione quoted lines from her Textbook. Either she already did read the book several times or she really memorized it all from classes. It was amazing, she never answered anything wrong so far.

Rosalie scanned through the pages to find something interesting she could question the girl on. "Tell me something about Flipendo." They sat still in the living room and Hermione made a point of not only telling her what she knew about the Charms Rosalie asked for, but also show her the right wand movements, using the TV-Remote instead of her wand. She insisted to not do any magic if it wasn't necessary because she didn't want to have any trouble with this professor of hers.

"It's a charm used to knock an opponent, in a duel or example, or a potential attacker off their feet. It doesn't matter how tall or strong the person in question is, the charm will knock anyone…..even Emmett" She joked and Rosalie felt a little proud that Hermione had no fear using their names already. She saw this behavior often at school, that the kids would not use their names or pretend to not know their names, because they didn't feel comfortable addressing them at all.

She demonstrated the wand movement. And Rosalie thought it looked close enough to the illustrations in the book. "And you are really able to cast all those magic spells?" Rosalie couldn't help but feel a little impressed as they went further through the topics. This was not what she imagined by the word charms. Half of those spells were meant for fighting rather than doing some magic tricks, as she imagined. When she heard Carlisle talk about real witches first, she imagined dishes that washed itself or something like that but not a little girl shooting fire balls at Trolls.

"Why do you learn so man….aggressive spells?" She tried to dive into the topic slowly and Hermione didn't hesitate to answer. She put the remote back on the table and sat on the couch.

"It's not aggressive its defensive!" Hermione corrected. "At least for me. I am sure some other students would agree with you." She wrapped her feet in a blanket and thought for a moment. "The wizarding world isn't as safe as the human world. It's more similar to yours. Vampires are a part of our world even though it's only a few of you that live in our society. But there are also werewolves, animagi, giants, trolls a lot of other partly humanoid creatures, entirely magic creatures with ill intends and evil wizards as well. You have to be able to protect yourself and your family, so they give us the tools to do so during school-time." Hermione explained happily away it nearly seemed to Rosalie as if she waited for an opportunity to tell those things.

"That doesn't sound like a nice place to live in." She frowned. "Why didn't you parents keep you away from such a dangerous world?" This seemed just wrong to her. If it would be her child wanting to get involved in such a world she would do anything to prevent it in order to keep it safe.

Hermione shook her head with a little too much effort. "No no for my parents it always was a great chance for me to be more, to able to achieve more than they ever could, because the wizarding world gave me more possibilities. And what else could parents want than to have some magic in their children's life. In the end it weren't the dangers of the wizarding world that killed them anyway, but a human"

Rosalie watched how the little witch turned more and more sad as the words left her mouth. Until finally Tears prickled in her eyes.

…..

Jasper was just getting near their home as a wave of sadness, grief and loss washed over him. The sign of those emotion were unfamiliar to him, which meant it only could be Hermione. He would have recognized everyone else of their family. What had happened? Worry filled him next to the feelings that weren't his own. He didn't bother to search for anyone else mood all he had in mind was to get home as fast as possible in case something had happened.

He rushed towards the back-door that led into the living room, but came to an abrupt stop when he catch a glance through the window. What he saw let his dead heart melt away. Hermione was crying bitter tears. He could hear her sobs and heavy breath through the window. Her head laid on Rosalie's shoulder and her arms were wrapped around her torso. She had the girl pulled onto her lap, held her close and rocked slowly back and forth with her. "It will be alright." She stroke the child's messy hair, "No one will take us away from you". His fake-twin placed a kiss on the witch's hair. "You will never have to feel that way again. We will be your home as long as you live.". The sobs turned into soft sniffles.

Jasper felt like doing something wrong, watching this scene, with neither of them being aware of his presence. But it was so good to see Rosalie getting so close to someone other than Emmett. It was rare to see her opening up to others. And the feeling of healing that radiated from Hermione now just made him wish to feel more of this warmth.

Next to him, Alice dropped to the ground from the Tree that was closest to the house. "It turned out even better than I saw it happening" she said with a sweet under-tone in her voice and took his hand to pull him away.

He followed her with little hesitation to turn his eyes off of his sisters. "You knew this would happen…." It was a fact no question.

"I knew it has to happen." She corrected him.

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AN: Hello friends. As you noticed I took some time for this chapter, which I gonna blame on the fact that it was my birthday and I just didn't spend time writing :p excuse me for that.  
I hope you enjoy this Rose-Chapter, even though I didn't check read it yet. I upload it anyway so you don't have to wait any longer and spell check tomorrow 😉 Enjoy.


	19. Chapter 19

**AN:** _I have to say a few things. First of all. Very much thanks for all the reviews and favs and followers. Honestly sometimes I wonder what I do right to deserve this amount of attention but I am very thankful for your interest in my story. So the first thing I did today was finishing this chapter. But I have to say that finals are about to start in uni and I need to focus a little more on my study, so I will need a little longer for chapters than only two days from now on, I hope you understand and keep enjoying. Also I will rework chapter one and two when I got a little time._

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 **Chapter 19: Time for a change**

Hermione calmed down slowly as the blond held her tight. She was smelling so good, like lavender and mint. "Are you better again?" Rosalie asked in a soft low voice it was nearly a whisper. Hermione only nodded she didn't trust her voice and she was ashamed. She should handle things in a more mature way.

Rosalie stood up and held a hand out to Hermione to get up as well. "Com I will show you something, that will cheer you up a little." Hermione dried her eyes and wiped her face quickly with her hands. As she took Rosalie's hand, the blond pulled her up easily. She followed her up the stairs and then she understood. Her room! They were going to her room.

Rosalie stopped in front the door that led to the empty room, Hermione was supposed to occupy as soon as it was done. She blocked the way. "Are you ready?" She asked conspiratorially.

"No way! It's finished?" Hermione got all excited and forgot her former sadness. How did they finish it so fast? There were so many pieces of furniture to get put together and she didn't hear any working-noise.

With a proud smile on her lips, Rosalie opened the door slowly, while Hermione tried to resist the urge to tiptoe in order to catch a glimpse of the room behind the door. When the door finally was completely open, Rose stepped aside to let Hermione in.

Her eyes were shining bright, as she stepped inside. Her room looked exactly as she pictured it when she was shopping for it with Esme. It had the weird smell of a typical new furnished room. The desk she picked took up a lot of space around one of the rooms corners and offered plenty of space to work on. Her bed above the dresser looked like a throne, from which she could overlook the whole room and to its feet was the soft fluffy rag she picked. Above, the big roof-window brightened the room even though rain was dripping on it. A more than necessary big TV hung at the wall opposite her bed. There was a big bookshelf in another corner along with the big armchair she picked for reading. It was perfect!

She walked into the room, turning around herself to see every Detail. Esme did a great job choosing decoration for the room.

Rosalie watched how Hermione explored her room for the first time. The Joy in her eyes was contagious. They spent the time left until dinner in her room and were talking about their school lifes.

….

The first few days after Hermione's shared Moment with Rosalie were a torture for Edward and Jasper. Rosalie's mood and thoughts were jumping between love, joy and frustration because she didn't want her siblings to get the wrong impression. She enjoyed to rule them with fear. Hermione was jumping from a warm nice feeling of home to embarrassment for her break down. She took pride in the fact that she took her parents death so well and didn't give her classmates the joy of seeing her cry. Now she did cry in front of her new sister.

Jasper just tried to solve the issue with focusing on Alice moods instead. It worked out fine, most of the time. Edward had a harder time getting along with his sisters. He decided to go stay at Bella's home as much as possible to avoid the situation. This contributed a big deal to Rosalie's increasing happiness, because it meant the human with the Deathwish wasn't around as well.

But neither Edward nor Jasper could really be mad at the girls, for one because they of all people could relate most to their struggles and secondly because they had a talk with Carlisle about the scene Jasper witnessed and all three of them agreed that this was something important to happen for Rose and Hermione. It would help both of them to deal with their problems better in the future.

On Wednesday, Hermione picked up the normal daily rhythm of the Cullens. Carlisle went to work at 6am, Esme stayed at home and got herself involved in various social projects to keep the family somewhat involved in the town's affairs. Her new older siblings were picking up Bella and went to school. This was nice the first two days, but then she noticed that she got so used to the house being full of people that she felt lonely when everyone else was out, doing their daily business. She was supposed to spend that time studying, which she did, but she never needed the whole time.

She would try to help Esme with some of her Projects or tell her about Hogwarts. The woman really wanted to understand the World Hermione was coming from.

She didn't know then, that on Saturday she would wish the boredom back…..

Saturday Morning she woke up to someone tapping on the Window above her bed. First she was annoyed, then she was confused. How could someone knock on that Window? It was on the roof! Hermione opened her Eyes and stared upwards. Above her head, on the outside of her Window, was Alice, smiling wide and waving happily at her. Then she motioned Hermione to let her in.

Hermione pulled the blanket over her head a little annoyed. Things you only experience, when living with vampires, she thought a little disturbed. She got up and tiptoed on her mattress to reach the window-handle and had trouble not to tumble over as she open the window. She didn't know how she was supposed to fully open it, usually you would need some kind of staffs to push the windows to the outside and set them in place, she was sure those were in the garage. But her worries were without reason, since Alice just pulled one half of the giant glasses open herself, once Hermione unlocked it. Without much noise, the vampire pulled off her shoes and jumped on Hermione's bed, slowly closing the Window above her again. Before the Witch could say any more, her new Sister shook her head violently, like a cat getting rid of unwanted wetness in it's fur. In general the whole situation reminded Hermione a lot of a cat. Her grandma used to let her cats into the house through windows. Hermione would have liked to make a similar comment, but she didn't know Alice well enough yet, to be sure this wouldn't be taken wrong. So instead she settled for "Why?...Where did you….." half, finished sentences. This girlfriend of Edward must already passed her inability of speaking full sentences over to her.

But Alice only smiled the biggest smile Hermione ever saw in such a beautiful face. Sometimes they looked so beautiful, that Hermione forgot they were actually alive and could move at any moment…..well alive in a wider meaning of the word, that is. "I was out for a walk. Me and Jasper like to see the sun rise" she explained excited as she stepped down from her bed. Even this simple thing, looked just beyond elegant. "And I thought now would be a good time to wake you. We have plans today!" she turned a pirouette and clapped her hands soundlessly.

Hermione sat down on her bed. "What kind of plans?" she asked a little suspicious "And with we, you mean?" she pulled her eyebrows together. "Why didn't you just take the door?"

Alice laughed "Slow down." As she spoke she stepped closer to Hermione's dresser and opened each available door on it. "It's Make-Over-day for you and with we I mean you and me and because, this was the shortest way to you." She searched through Hermione's clothes and Hermione hung her head over the corner of her bed, to see what the little woman was looking for.

At the words 'make-Over' she pulled back and wrapped her blanket around herself. This didn't sound like something she would enjoy. She watched Alice go through her things, sometimes she would pull a piece out of the dresser, look at it more closely and put it neatly back in.

What was the point in it anyway? Not like she would ever get close to this unhuman vampire-beauty. And she didn't have to anyway. She would not be one of those girls that only got through life with a pretty face. She had what she needed IN her head not ON her head. She didn't want to get changed, just to fit into the family better. A grumpy feeling spread through her belly.

"Don't worry!" Alice exclaimed "you will like it, I know it" she shot her a meaningful look and Hermione got the hint, even without that. But she still didn't really believe her.

"You make her uncomfortable, Love." Jasper was leaning against the doorframe. Hermione didn't even hear him opening the door. But as soon as she met his eyes a soft smile played around his lips and a wave of adventurous excitement washed over her. She couldn't wait to get dressed and see what Alice had in mind. She jumped off her higher positioned sleeping space and pulled a few clothes out of the dresser to get ready for the day. Alice giggled as she watched her.

The fun was interrupted as Edward walked by and slapped Jasper lightly on the back of his head. "Stop manipulating her, Jasper!" he scolded and kept walking towards the stairs "Carlisle, Jasper is messing around for Alice advantage again." Was all that could be heard from him, once he was out of sight. A few seconds later a "Play fair, kids!" in the soft doctors voice was the earned reply.

"What a fun-killer" Alice complained while Jasper laugh rumbled in his chest. Hermione blinked confused to the spot where he stood. As she slowly understood what happened her glare turned angry. "You manipulated my feeling!" she accused him and knew she was right.

"I am sorry!" a lopsided smile told her he was not. "I just didn't want to let you feel bad." Was his excuse. It was a weak one in Hermione's opinion. She contemplated to throw a piece of cloth at him, but given their reflexes and rock-hard sin this would have been a pity try. So instead she just walked over and gave the door a good push to let it fall close, leaving Jasper locked out.

She turned around to get dressed, when Alice already was next to her, took the clothes Hermione held out of her hands and gave her something else. A dress in a pale dirty pink and some leggings along with a thin cardigan. Something Hermione might would have worn for a Birthday-party nut not for daily living. Then she felt Alice hands on her shoulders. "Trust me you will like it."

Hermione couldn't help but feel like she had to believe her, the way she said that didn't sound like pure excitement to go shopping, but as she was convinced of it. So the witch gave in and went to the bathroom to get ready.

When she returned to her room, she heard Esme call her down for breakfast. This was actually something she got used to fast. She walked down the stairs a little faster than was wise and slipped on the last view steps. She took a shard breath, as she prepared for the impact with the wooden floor. But she collided sooner than expected with something similar hard. "Woah there! I thought you guys need a broom to fly." It was Emmett who caught her. Her face must have hit his chest. It was still better than kissing the floor. He put her down on her feet again and pinched her cheek laughing. "Don't hurt yourself or Rosalie hurts me."

With a blush on her cheeks she mumbled her thanks and went to the kitchen-counter. Esme was standing behind it and was chatting with Bella, who already sat on one of the stools, munching on a toast. She must have slept here last night as well. Hermione somewhat doubted that she came over early just for breakfast.

She climbed on her own chair, while leaving one free in between her and the other girl. She didn't have the feeling that she particularly liked her and somehow felt like she was returning those feelings. To be fair she didn't know her at all. But somehow it wormed Hermione that Bella was here all the time, while her dad obviously wanted to spend time with her. The fact that Hermione herself wouldn't have a chance to do such a simple thing as having breakfast with her father, made her mad about this fact even more.

"Good morning" she mumbled. And watched as Esme put a place in front of her. There was a sliced Apple, a golden Toast and some scrambled eggs. She smiled happily. Nearly as good as breakfast at Hogwarts.

"You look pretty today, dear…..Alice?" Esme asked with a sympathetic expression on her beautiful face. Hermione nodded a little resigned. Seems like the case already was well known and she wasn't the first of Alice victims.

"She said today is Make-Over-day" the girl explained and bit into her own toast, before glancing at Bella. She only ate half her breakfast and didn't seem to intend eating the rest of it. "Did you sleep over here, Bella?" Hermione asked, trying to hide her disagreement, which didn't work out that well. She stared at the older girl as she waited for a reply. She had to admit Bella was a pretty girl. She just didn't look very healthy and if she would have been able to answer in full sentences without ten minute breaks between question and answer, Hermione might would have liked her. Professor would have wen crazy, with her as student.

"Uhm….yeah." she started, slowly "I came over last night….I didn't see you around though" Was Bella's full answer.

"Oh yeah I was in my room with Rosalie. She helped me studying" Hermione just discovered a new part of herself, that she didn't really dislike, but she was well aware it was not a good character trait that she developed right there.

Alice joined them, danced over to hug Bella and then looked at Hermione expectantly. Jasper followed right behind but kept a distance to them. He and Esme exchanged a meaningful look, that Hermione couldn't really interpret but she felt like she was intruding, as she watched it, so her eyes went to her nearly finished plate. "Can we go?" Alice asked now a little hyper again.

Hermione was still chewing, but felt like she has to answer right away so she tried to speak with a full moth "Chan I pwease finif eatin fift?" was the gibberish she got out, which caused a melodic laugher from Esme.

"Let you sister eat, Alice! Then you have all day to torture her." Hermione felt weird, that Esme called them sisters. Yes she did it herself in her head, but more to get used to the whole idea of family rather than anything else. This felt different. This felt as if she always had been here and a part of them. If harry could see that, what would he say?

Alice turned around in her Chair, back and forth, back and forth. It made Hermione nervous in a annoyed way. "Do you want to come with us Bella?" Alice asked and this didn't help Hermione. She knew she had to jump over her own shadow and get to know Edwards girlfriend at some point, but right now this was a little hard and she didn't want to face this issue right now.

This was when she discovered a new favorite thing about her new family. Jasper was a savior! "I don't think Edward would be happy if you kidnap Bella." He threw in before the same could answer herself. "I think he has plans for the two of them today." Hermione felt relieved and when she looked at Jasper, he shot her a little wink. He knew she didn't want to spend time with Bella and just punched her out of the dilemma. Her mouth formed a soundless 'Thank you'.

Hermione's plate was finished. But she wasn't really full yet, at least not if a day full of shopping was ahead. She glimpsed at Bella's plate. "Are you going to finish this?" she asked, knowing fully well that she would not. As expected Bella shook her head, while she spoke to Alice and the girl pilled her half-finished plate over.

Alice watched this action with impatience, but didn't complain. "I could have made some more food for you" Esme sounded a little hurt, but Hermione didn't want to accept that.

"No why waste food, that's already prepared." Was her argument, which earned a little proud nod from Esme.

Once hormone was done, she took the dishes, jumped from her stool and put them into the dishwasher. "Thank you sweetie" Esme hugged her briefly and kissed her head. "Don't let Alice torture you too much."

"Finally we can go!" Alice bright smile could have lit up the whole room.

….

They took Carlisle's Car, since it had a little more storage room, than Alice'. The ride would take a while again, something Hermione came to dislike about living in Forks already. They were just heading out of town, when Hermione started to break the silence. Well it wasn't silence in the literal meaning of the word, since Alice was humming along a song in the Radio, it was just a state of no-conversation.

"So why are we doing this?" the witch asked a little curious. She really didn't know what to think of Alice yet. She was nice, without any doubt and the first of her new siblings that was not afraid of including her into the family right away, after all she hugged her right at their first encounter. On the other hand, they hadn't spent time together yet and Alice seemed to be really fond of everything extreme. She was never afraid to do things the vampire way, while the other often tried to act human. She also obviously was a fan of excessive Shopping. Hell, even her gift was extreme in some way. I mean seeing the future was extreme. Sure Future telling was a subject at Hogwarts too, but Hermione always had her doubts, that any of those obscure prophecies had any value. Without any doubt, Alice' visions were reliable. "It's not like I actually will blend in with out vampire-perfection" Hermione grumbled. She always disliked the Slytherin girls, that cared more about their looks than their grades, but during the past few days, she grew more and more aware of all her little flaws. Only having vampires around, make you camper yourself to them at some point.

"That's nonsense!" Alice threw in. "That's not at all my Intention or even necessary. You fit into the family just fine!" She pouted her Lips and turned the volume of the radio down. "I just got a new baby sister and want to spoil her with new things." She defended herself and Hermione thought she could hear some actual hurt feeling out of it.

"Uhm….Thank you?" Hermione was at a loss how to react to this. "But as you probably noticed, I am not exactly the fashion-kind-of-girl." She bit her lip. No she clearly wasn't. She was glad that she had to wear her school uniform at Hogwarts and didn't have to worry about clothing. A much bigger issue each morning, was taming her hair anyway.

"Doesn't matter." Alice voice had a serious sound to it, that Hermione didn't hear like that before from her. It was somehow good to know that she had a serious side to her character. "That's what you have me and Rose for now. We are good with such things, trust me." An evil little smile spread on her lips "Just imagine how they will react in your new school, when you turn out smart and stylish."

Hermione's first attempt was to criticize this and lecture her about how a smart girl never needed to be stylish. But a nagging voice inside her head told her that this actually would be cool and she wanted it. A little shy she nodded. She didn't really believe that Alice could make her promises come true, but maybe it was worth a shot.

…

Alice pulled and dragged her through so many Stores. Some of them were obvious to spot as such, some were so hidden and small, that Hermione wasn't sure that they were public at all.

Through half the marathon, the witch got the Feeling, that Alice wanted to replace her whole wardrobe. So just to be sure she picked a few clothes that weren't to different from those she usually would wear. A lot of them looked similar to her school-uniform. She just liked that kind of style. It always was warm and practical. Alice made sure a certain level of style wasn't missing though.

After what seemed like endless hours to Hermione, they needed a break. Well she needed a break, Alice was a different matter.

After a little begging, Alice gave in to Ice-cream for the young girl instead of an actual Lunch. Usually Hermione would have never denied a healthy full meal for something silly as ice-cream, but she had plenty of breakfast and the ice-cream shop they walked by had her favorite flavor, Honey-Mint. It was a rare thing and she didn't want to miss the chance.

All in All she couldn't deny that she enjoyed the day with Alice and she would never have it said, but she loved the collection of clothes, the adorable vampire got for her. If she would have had such a sense for fine clothing back in Hogwarts, the nasty Slytherin-girls wouldn't have picked on her as much, she was sure. They kind of respected such things.

The Trip back home came with a fulfilling feeling of tiredness, stratification and joy about the new things, now in her possession.

Alice was driving even faster than Esme, but on the way back it didn't bother Hermione as much, since they were engaged in a rather emotional talk.

"But why can't you just pick the house you want to live in at Hogwarts?" Alice whined a little frustrated, they discussed the matter ever since they got into the car. "I mean, what if you just made friends before school and then lose them due to the whole house thing?" She obviously didn't like the system.

Hermione was passionate about it though. "But the hat knows better!" she countered "he sees the character-traits, you didn't discover yourself yet. He knows exactly, where you would grow most!" She was convinced of this, as soon as she bonded with Harry and Ron.

"Which house was yours?" Alice still didn't want to drop the topic.

"Gryffindor. Gryf-fin-dor" she repeated for the 5th time. "The house of the proud and brave!" She stated a little annoyed but with amusement.

"Dear I don't see red and gold being your colors! And I don't thin brave and proud are your strongest traits!" Alice chuckled, she knew she just pushed a button there.

"They are not my strong traits YET" Was Hermione's answer. The hat knew best, after all. "Before the sorting I thought i become a Ravenclaw, to be honest. The smart and wise"

Alice still shook her head. "No! Blue isn't your color either. I see you more in green!"

Shocked Hermione shook her head. "NOOOOO! Never a Snake! " she protested desperately.

Alice let out a melodic laugh. It was nice to see the girl so excited about a topic. "So what house would I be in, what do you think?" She asked a little curious. Her Siblings discussed this topic already, when Carlisle wrote letters, telling them about the Houses at Hogwarts. But who would know better than the little witch in their family?

"Only the hat knows for sure!" Hermione didn't want to give wrong directions. But it still was an interesting thought "But I would think you would be a Slytherin!" she said a little whispered. As if the hat could hear her and get mad, for taking his job.

"But you said they are evil!" Alice looked rather disappointed. Carlisle described the house as proud of history, smart and with a good touch of realism. Hermione however described it as cunning, mean and wayward.

"Well maybe not all of them are evil…." She gave in "They also have the qualities of thinking ahead, plotting and some high level understanding of style and taste." Hermione had to admit a little against her instincts as Gryffindor. "But they are still our worst enemies!" She added like a threat.

"Oh if we are enemies, I fear you have to repay me for all the clothes." Alice said in fake hurt.

"Maybeeeee I can be friends with ONE Slytherin." The girl retorted cheeky.

They spend the rest of the way discussing the different qualities of each house and guessing how the hat might know how to sort the kids.

Only when they were near Forks, Hermione slowly started yawning and turning a little tired. It was an exhausting day after all. A good, exhausting day.


	20. Chapter 20

**AN** _ **:**_ _Soooo Exam-Phase is over, I got sick right after, but now I am back and okay again. So being sick also gave me the idea for the next chapter. I hope you enjoy!_

 **Chapter 20: Time for big brothers**

The Shopping-trip with Alice was more fun than Hermione wanted to admit, but there was no hiding such thoughts with Edward and Jasper around. So the following days they were picking on the topic. Things like "No worries Bella, Alice got her true Shopping-Mate!" or "What you are still here, I thought you are out Style-hunting again!" were thrown around constantly. But after a little while Hermione just laughed with the boys, because it annoyed Alice more than anyone else.

The little witch still couldn't get a connection to Bella or Edward, since they kind of stuck to themselves. Also Emmett was a tricky case. He and Rose were out hunting, at least that's what they told the rest of the family, but telling by the looks everyone was shooting, when they said good bye, they were out for more naughty reasons. Hermione shook her head she didn't want to think about such things. Anyway she was a little shocked, that all the Cullens skipped school the following week, because it was too sunny. What kind of reason was that?

And then something happened, that didn't happen ever since Hermione stayed with her new family. Nearly all of them went hunting. On Sunday, after their Shopping tour, Jasper and Edward left together with Rose and Emmett. But while the Couple planned on staying away longer, the boys returned on Tuesday. And that was the day, the rest of the family prepared for leaving. And Hermione was nervous. She just found her new family and now she was somehow worried that this could be dangerous, that they would not return. Of course this was nonsense, she knew what kind of abilities they possessed, but it still scared her. And there was no hiding those thoughts either.

She sat in her room, waiting for Carlisle to show up and tell her that they were ready for leaving. It was already past nine and dark outside. She was staring into one of her books, but to say she was reading, would have been a lie. But it wasn't Carlisle who approached her after a while. A somewhat shy knock on the door, revealed two insecure looking young men to her attention. Jasper and Edward. They looked a lot better than when they first arrived back at home a few hours ago. Both were showered and wore a new set of clothes. "Ah…Mind if we talk a minute?" Edward spoke. Hermione was confused but also a little relieved that she can stop pretending to read while her thoughts were running circles, so she invited them in.

"What is it?" she couldn't think of anything they wanted from her. She interacted little with Jasper and even less with Edward. Not because she avoided them it just didn't happen. They still felt like half-strangers to her.

"You know, we can't help but notice your worry to be alone with us." Hermione's face showed some understanding, that's why they wanted to talk to her! "You should keep in mind, that we are both more than 100 years old….we can manage to keep you alive for a few days" Edward chuckled with a sarcastic, smug, smile on his lips.

"Oh no!" Hermione threw a pillow at him, with no success he caught it without any afford. "No, you got that all wrong" she complained a little to enthusiastic. "I am not worried to be alone with YOU. I am worried that something will happen to them, while they are gone." Hermione's face turned into an annoyed grimace. Stupid vampired….!

Jasper was the one who laughed, while edward just stared at her blankly. "Why do you laugh?" she asked even more annoyed now.

"You are worried that something will happen to your vampire family? For real?" the laugher rumbled in his chest. And Edwards confusion grew "Why are you worried that something will happen to them? You weren't so worried about us leaving earlier this week." The question made him sound like a detective questioning a criminal.

And that's exactly how the witch felt. She didn't notice that before, but he was right, she was not so concerned when they left earlier. "Well….uh…" she stuttered, unsure what to say. "You are young and all….well vampiric…..Carlisle and Esme aren't like you." She pouted, because she didn't really want to say those words out loud. But it was true. Their adoptive parents seemed a lot more human than her new vampiric siblings. But now both men were laughing.

"What is so funny?" Carlisle entered the room, closing the last button on his cardigan. "They laugh about me, because I worry" Hermione hissed, more like a Slytherin than a Gryffindor.

"She is worried, that you will get hurt, because you and Esme are so human" Edward explained with this smug grin again, and Hermione wished she could actually hit him with something harder than a pillow. The glare she shot at him, could have burned a hole into his forehead.

A compassioned smile played around Carlisle's lips. "Edward…." He somehow managed to sound scolding and amused at once. It was beyond Hermione how he managed that. "Would you wait downstairs please? The girls want to say goodbye to you." He tried to word in a tactful and nice way, that he wanted to speak to Hermione in private. Not that privacy ever was a big truth in this house. And obviously everyone involved knew what Carlisle wanted, so no one complained and the boys left the room less amused than before.

Then the doctor faced her and suddenly she felt uncomfortable. He had this soft, calming smile on his face and somehow it made her stomach flip. He sat down next to her. "So what was this about?" he asked with the usual smooth voice.

Hermione's cheeks heat up. She didn't want to repeat her word. She was somewhat convinced that her earlier openness was partly Jaspers fault.

But he didn't let the topic slip so easy. "What did Edward mean?" he put an arm around her shoulders. His hand was as cold as usual but somehow she came to like this, because it was a part of him. Of them all. "If you were able to tell them, you surely can tell me." He joked, but this truth was undeniable.

Hermione bit her lip before she spoke "I am just…..you and Esme are so….normal….i mean." She took a deep breath. "the others constantly make use of their vampiric abilities….i even saw Emmet using his speed to knot Jaspers shoe-laces together!" she changed her approach to the topic. "You and Esme are different, you could be mistaken for a human anytime….I am just worried that you get hurt while being out there". So it was out and she felt a lot lighter instantly.

Within a split second, she suddenly was spun around and two very hard and very cold arms were wrapped around her. His hands stroke slow circles over her back and he could feel his chest rumble as he spoke, chin resting on her hair "As you can see, I can be just as fast as them…..even faster, this young folk doesn't know what they are doing." He laughed softly. "And Esme is no less capable of keeping herself safe" Now he pushed her away a little, to look into her eyes. "There is absolutely no reason to be afraid of us getting hurt by a few animals. And before you know it we are all back home."

Hermione nodded a little in awe. She had no time to react at all before he had her pulled into a hug and neither could she resist his firm hand, when he pushed her away and held her in place to look at her. How could she ever get this wrong impression, that he was human? Suddenly something Professor Snape once said rang in her ears: "Once you face a vampire you will underestimate it, if you don't remind yourself constantly of the danger". Though Hermione didn't feel any danger, quite the opposite. Suddenly she realized, that not only her adoptive Parents would be safe out there, but she would be safe here, no matter what. She just could not imagine, that any troll or poltergeist, not even the dark lord himself, could get to her here.

"Come, the others are waiting." He pulled her out of the memory and placed a soft kiss on her head. A wide smile spread on her lips. Everything would be alright.

…

Their departure was rather quick. Everyone already said their goodbyes when Carlisle and Hermione joined the group. She hugged him once more and then repeated the same thing with Esme and Alice. Then they all were gone and she was alone with Jasper and Edward.

This was a little to awkward to deal with so she hurried to get some sleep and get into bed right after that. Not that she didn't like them, but she never was alone with them before.

Once she was ready and snuggled up under her covers, sleep didn't come easy. Somehow weird thoughts found their way into her head, thoughts that made her nervous. How are Harry and Ron? Was anyone else missing her in Hogwarts? What would her Parents say about her new living situation? Did Dumbledore ever think about his decision, to sent her here? Why did Snape of all people get involved? When would finally someone contact her, to set her up for Ilvermorny?

With all those questions attacking her, she was tossing and turning and even though she fell asleep on some point it didn't felt like sleep. It felt exhausting and somehow she was aware the whole time that she should have a deeper sleep.

She didn't wake up as early as usual and certainly no on her own. What woke her was a cool hand on her cheek and when she opened her eyes the first thing she saw was her window and the clear blue, sunny sky behind it. It must have been already past 8am. Then she turned her head to the owner of this hand. Her head felt like there was too much pressure in it, as she turned around. Her throat felt equally scratchy and thick. And then she looked into Jaspers golden eyes. He wore a worried frown.

"Good Morning" Hermione tried to say, but it was voiceless and hurt. "I am sick, aren't I?" she stated and had to smile, despite her pain, when she saw Jaspers confusion about her statement.

"No shit sherlock." He said. "I wondered why you didn't wake up and felt your uncomfortableness. So I wanted to check on you" he explained as if it was a crime to be in her room. "Edward" he said a little louder, no need to yell. Seconds later he passed the door too. "She is sick." Jasper said in a matter-of-fact voice. Somehow Hermione found this funny and wanted to keep the personal joke going. "I am sick" she repeated in the same voice and tried to sit up in her bed. Her head hurt even more and the world was spinning for a moment. The need to have a warm scarf wrapped around her throat was growing.

"And what am I supposed to do?" Edward asked. A little confused, but his face showed the same worried frown, jasper wore earlier.

"You are the one with the medicine study." Was Jaspers smart-ass answer. It only caused a quirked eyebrow from the bronze-haired vampire. He felt her forehead as well. "No fever" he mumbled. "It's just a cold, no medicine-degree needed here. We can't do much but sit it out". Hermione nodded approvingly, that's what her Dad used to say too, whenever anyone had a cold.

"Well I will prepare some breakfast for you. Put some clean and comfortable clothes on." Then he stepped on her bed carefully to open the window above slightly. "Fresh air, and clean covers will help"

Then he disappeared on his way downstairs while Hermione climbed out of her bed a little clumsy. "Go, get dressed and all. I will take care of the covers." Jasper offered. Nice as always, Hermione thought. She never felt a bad vibe coming from him ever.

When she returned from her bathroom adventure, that took way longer than usual, her bed had fresh covers and some music came from the kitchen. She went downstairs, holding her head, because the pressure in it turned worse every time her feet hit the ground.

"You need a scarf" was the first sentence that greeted her, when she entered the kitchen space. Hermione had an excuse for that though. "I have one….but I couldn't find it. Alice rearranged my whole wardrobe." Her voice was stronger now but it sounded nosey.

Jasper disappeared and was back in no time, with a thick wool scarf. He twisted it around her neck gently and wrapped the ends around it. "There you go, little one". Hermione coughed a giggle.

Meanwhile Edward placed a cup of Tea on the counter, placed a spoon full of honey in it and added a bowl with fruits and Yoghurt to the picture. "You can rest in the living room a little, as long as you aren't too tired." He allowed her and Hermione wasn't sure if he was supposed to tell her what to do. Sure they were the older ones…..by far! But they weren't Carlisle. But then again she agreed with him, so why argue?

While she was munching on her food, they were talking. "You know it will get worse before it gets better?" Edward asked in a warning tone. Hermione nodded, it wasn't her first cold after all. "If I could brew a pepper up potion, it would be fine within a few hours." She explained but the doubt in her voice was obvious for anyone, she knew she didn't have the necessary ingredients and wasn't in the condition to brew.

"What the heck is a pepper up potion?" Jasper asked his head rested on his arms as he half sat, half laid on the counter. "Are you even allowed to brew stuff, when Mom and Dad aren't home?".

There it was…..they called them mom and Dad. That didn't happen around her before and it hit her somehow. Sure they were their parents in some way….but Dad was her Dad…..not Carlisle. Obviously Edward couldn't keep his nose out of her head, because he responded to the unspoken thought.

"You know….we all have our own families. Somewhere in the past." He started and Jasper couldn't really pick up where the topic change came from, until he realized. Such half-unspoken conversations were nothing unusual in their household and one got used to it at some point. He continued "but after 30, 40 or maybe even 60 years of being the persons we can got to with all out worries and problems, Carlisle just becomes a father for every single one of us, more than our real fathers ever had a chance to. And Esme had more time to be a mother to each of us, than any of our real mothers had the chance to." He explained carefully. "it is no disrespect to out biological parents, when we call them Mom and Dad, its an expression of our love for them."

Hermione thought about it. This was a point of view she couldn't access before. "Eat up and I get you a thicker blanket for the living room." Obviously the topic was done for Edward.

"Don't worry too much about it. Take it at your pace or just don't. No one forces you to do anything." Jasper nudged her side with his elbow. "You want some company while you rest?….And with rest I mean watch TV until our eyes hurt." He asked with a wide grin. She was so happy, that he was so sensitive to the feeling of others, so she rarely had to explain what she needed. She wasn't sure if Alice told him to be nice to her or if that's just how he was, but she was thankful none the less. She nodded happily.

….

Snuggled up on the Couch while watching TV was nice for a while, but around noon her nose started to get stuffy. She kept switching the sides she laid on, sitting sometimes for a while until she got too tired again. "What are you doing?" Jasper got a little annoyed by her constant moving. He wasn't mad but he actually was watching the show in the tv.

"I can't breathe when I lay down, but I am too tired to sit" she complained. With a sight the blonde vampire got up and disappeared in the kitchen when he came back he looked unhappy. "We have no tissues in this house…..we just don't need them" he admitted frustrated. "Edward? Can you pick up some tissue-boxes when u get Bella?" This time he was yelling, but more out of frustration rather than the need for it. A little annoyed Edward agreed. He didn't plan on coming back home with Bella but changed his plans in favor for Family-Matters, as he called it.

Jasper helped Hermione out with some kitchen-papers, until the tissue delivery would show up. Before Edward got read to leave he stopped by in Carlisle's study. He knew that their father kept a few meds in storage for Bella. So he decided to search through it, there had to be something against colds. Something that would help Hermione sleep or breath or at least lesson the headache. After a little while his search kame to success. He took the little bottle and rushed downstairs. "jas, catch" he warned the same second he entered the last stair and threw the bottle towards his brother, who just settled on the couch next to Hermione. He had no problems reacting in time, and red the label. "Whats that?" they both asked at the same time. Edward already shrugged into his jacket, not that he needed it, it just looked more normal. "Make sure she takes one now and one before bed" and then he already was through the door, to the garage. "That was no answer" Hermione complained, to tired to argue or yell anything. "No it wasn't" jasper agreed. "I have no clue about those things, though" he excused himself and just pulled on of the small pills out of it. He handed her the Waterbottle, that was standing untouched next to the couch-table. As he saw that it still was full he frowned. He should have watched out that she drank something, he simply forgot that she needs to drink. "Here " he handed her the pill and opened the bottle for her. "You should drink more". This statement didn't solve his guilty feelings, but better now than never.

Once she was done and put the bottle down, jasper offered an open arm and a warm smile. Confused the witch stared at him. "You can rest at my side, so you can breath AND sleep" he explained. She felt dumb for not understanding, but also wasn't sure if they were close enough for such interactions. Sure Brother or not, he still was somewhat of a stranger to her. But the yawn and the headache protesting against her sitting position, convinced her to accept the offer. He wasn't exactly comfy as a pillow. He was cold and rock-hard. But her head was high enough to be able to breath, and this was a lot easier than holder herself up sitting. She got as comfortable as possible and pulled the blanket up to her chin. "So Edward has a degree in medicine , huh?" she tried to Smalltalk her awkwardness away, but soon noticed that there was no need for that effort, as a wave of comfortableness washed over her. "Yeah, among others. But he's the only one of us who ever followed Carlisle into this field. Even though we all change our Study-Subjects each time we enroll" he explained in a low voice, clearly wanting her to sleep.

This was impressive Hermione thought. Impressive, but a topic to dive in another time. She watched, as Jasper switched through the channels and even before he decided on one, she was drifting off into dreamland.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Time to face facts

It was 11pm when edward returned to the Cullen house. He intended to return to Bella later, while she was asleep but he couldn't stay there without at least checking if his brother had things under control with the sick little witch, that now was part of their family. Bella needed to get ready for the night, so instead of laying around and waiting for her while avoiding Charlie, he used this time to see if the house was still stone on stone and everyone inside alive….well at least the one living person in there.

When he entered it was too quiet for the girl to be up, he noticed instantly. What he did hear was the soft noise of Jasper smashing his fingers on the buttons of the gamepad. He was playing with Emmett's Video-Games. So the Living room area was his first goal. He found his brother greeting him, while sitting on the floor, back against the couch and eyes glued to the TV. "I put her into Alice bed, when she fell asleep" was all he commented to an unspoken question. Edward nodded and couldn't hide a lopsided smile, a little proud of the consideration his brother had, despite the human nature being strange and foreign to him. He opened his mouth to say something but before he could he could hear the answer to his questions in his brothers thoughts _. 'Yes she did eat a little before bed and yes I didn't burn anything_ '. "Thank you" Edward offered. He knew he should have been here with Jasper, but he was more than capable of dealing with this and while he had already plenty of years to spend with Alice, Edward didn't want to cut down the time he could spend with Bella…and then there was this other issue.

He knew that Hermione wasn't particularly fond of him. Not that she disliked Edward, but she couldn't hide the fact that his ability made her feel uncomfortable. She also couldn't hide the fact that she didn't like Bella very much. Despite the touching talk Jasper had with Bella before, about accepting each other as part of the family, the two human members didn't seem to have any desire to get closer than necessary. He didn't like that fact, but he couldn't really be mad at either of them. He knew it was not easy to be around him, a few of his siblings needed quite a time to adjust to the fact that someone constantly knew all the mean, sad and stupid thoughts in their heads, that no one ever would admit. This was hard enough when you were several decades old, how must it be for a 12 year old that has enough other changes on her plate?

He also could see, why Bella wasn't exactly thrilled to get around the witch. She still felt a little threatened by her presence, and to add a witch to the already shocking discovery vampires was a little too much to deal with and his love subconsciously decided that dealing with the first one was enough of a task for now.

What he did not quite understand was why Hermione had an aversion against Bella. Despite Mindreading he could not understand why someone would not like her. Naturally he knew the reasons that, were going through peoples heads. He played this game with Rose for a while now too. He just could not see those reasons being about his Bella, not if they knew her better. But it was a never ending circle and he learned, over time, to accept the weird thoughts people had about each other.

Somewhere during those thoughts he decided to check the kitchen and get a glass of water, he could bring with him when he went upstairs to check on his new baby-sister. Another thing he learned during the several additions to their family was, that he could never convince people to feel on ease around him, but he could give them time to get used to him, sometimes then they started to like him. Sometimes not.

He cracked the door open and was thankful that Jasper put the girl in his bed. It had a lot more space and you didn't have to bother with the little stairs that lead up to her own childish and girly bed. Somehow he found it easier to be around her when she was asleep.

While she was awake there were constantly thoughts of insecurity bothering him. Not the kind of insecurities one would expect in a 12 year old girls brain, no more the kind of insecurities, that happen when one knew their thoughts weren't private. And it bothered him to be constantly reminded of just HOW uncomfortable he made her.

But in moments like this when she was asleep and Rosalie wasn't watching her like a angry Dog her puppy, he could actually come to terms with the fact that she now would be a part of them. Edward didn't have many occasions to talk to her for the obvious reasons, but he found just by the way she was forming thoughts, that she must be a clever girl. Carlisle told him so, but seeing or rather hearing it for himself was a little stunning to him. He learned more about the witch than he would admit to anyone inside their family, or her in particular. Every night before she fell asleep, he was glad when he was not around, because the thoughts of guilt for leaving her friends behind, the doubts about her decision and the sheer pain about losing her parents were haunting him as much as her. Still he had to admit that she dealt just amazingly well with it, considering her age. He also knew that, every time when she felt at home with them, she felt like betraying her dead family.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to feel if her fever still was there. Relieved he noticed that it was gone. Her breathing sounded heavy and now and then she took an exhausted breath through her mouth, that filled her lungs completely.

Edward wondered if he should tell Carlisle, for her own good. What held him back was this unspoken agreement, that Edward would not do such things for anyone in the family. Carlisle wanted everyone to come to him on their own, if they felt ready. He did not want to spy on his family through Edward and force them to word issues. But the bronze-haired vampire wasn't sure if this also counted for Hermione. He did not think humans could take such mature decisions at her age.

His thoughts got interrupted by hers. Obviously her sleep got restless, because short and confused thoughts like 'can't wake up yet, need to sleep' or 'they will wake me if they plan something' broke through the thick fog of sleep. A rough cough finally woke her and she sat up straight to get it under control. Instantly her brown eyes looked at him, but this time she was not scared to find one of them around. A good change of pattern, as Edward found. He gestured to the glass of water he had ready for her and was glad that she accepted it without question. "Do you feel a little better already?" he asked, even though he knew the answer. Her thoughts got more and more filled with complaints about headache and trouble to breath, as she woke up more. But there was one particular thought that stung his dead heart. 'Why is he here and not Jasper?'.

Edward knew by experience, that such thought were not ever meant the harsh way they came off, because it were just split seconds to form the idea and get rid of it again without any bigger process behind it and he was well aware that the girl grew rather fond of Jasper fast. But it still hurt him to know that she would rather have someone else around in situations like this.

Maybe he should not have avoided her so much after all. He could never imagine Alice or Rose thinking that way. If they would be in need of help they would be as glad to see him as if it were Emmett or Jasper or their parents. He frowned as he came to a decision.

"Jasper is downstairs, playing a few video games…I think he earned himself some playtime" he tried to give her a smile and was thankful that she didn't not connect the dots between his statement and her thought. In fact, she was to tired to recall that he was a mind-reader, and therefore did not struggle with his presence as much as usual. He pulled his phone out of his jeans-pocket. "Do you think you can go back to sleep?" he asked in a soft voice and watched unsurprised as she shook her head in a childish manner. His attention shifted to his phone, as he opened the Text chat with Bella and typed "I am sorry, Bella. I need to take care of a few things tonight, but I will be back when you wake up and make up for the lost time together." Then his attention shifted back to Hermione, who was rubbing her eyes tired between a few coughs. She was obviously still tired. "Well then let's do something about it, shall we?" he offered an looked at the stacks of books that still were laying on Alice nightstand. "Did you read any of those?" he asked a little skeptical. Most of those books weren't something he would consider her thing….or anyone's thing. Hermione looked confused, not recognizing the books at first, until she remembered her first night here. Then she tapped on one "Not really, but I wanted to start reading this one."

At least it was the only book Edward considered good for anything as well. He guessed Alice picked them, not knowing exactly what Hermione liked to read. Edward put the other books aside and then half sat, half laid down next to Hermione. She looked at him in confusion, as he wrapped the blanket tighter around him, knowing exactly well from Bella, how much his coldness could bother humans. Then he placed a Pillow against his Shoulder, so Hermione could have a look at the pages as well, while lying down. "Let's read then. I read, you try to go back to sleep." He ordered and was pleased to see the puzzled look forming into a sick, but excited grin. She got comfortable and waited for him to start reading.

Edward actually wasn't that bothered by the book choice. He actually was someone to give modern books a chance. The first chapter was quite catching, and he found that he would not mind reading more of it. As for Hermione…..it did not take long for her to fall back asleep. He assumed that all girls worked a little the same when it came to this kind of things, no matter the age. Bella often commended on how much the rumble of his chest made her sleepy, when she as cuddled up against him and he spoke. His safe guess was, that the same trick worked with the little witch.

She was still heavy breathing, but sound asleep and Edward just gave in into his fate and kept reading. Without any doubt she would wake up a few times during the night. He put a sign at the site, where he lost Hermione's attention, so that he could start reading there again, when she woke up, but until then, he kept going with the book.

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 **AN:** _Hey. So as I already said in the misused review, It's not dead, I am still on it! I just need more time these days cuz I kind of decided two part time jobs would be a great idea additional to my study. Please don't hate me but you know the drill…..need money to kinda live and all that. But yeah as you see it still goes on. Granted this chapter is a little short, but not because of the lack of time and rather because I thought this would be a good end to the chapter. It just made sense. I actually have more written already, but will put that into a next chapter._ _So you don't have to wait as long for the next one. And for all of you who were complaining about the missing Edward-Bonding-time. Here it is. I planned all along to give him this little Moment of regret…also I really wanted a situation where he ditches Bella….sorry xD but I am just no fan of her._

 _Anyway I hope you enjoy it anyway and bear with my messed up time management_


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